Toronto Maple Leafs: Wow, Young Players Are Getting Paid
The Toronto Maple Leafs are going to fork some serious cash over.
When you look at the Toronto Maple Leafs roster, one thing stands out among the rest.
They have three potential superstars in Auston Matthews, William Nylander, and Mitchell Marner, all of which are nearing the end of their respective entry level deals.
Both Matthews and Marner have two more years under contract, while Nylander will need to re-up at the conclusion of the 2017-18 season.
Okay, so there’s still a decent amount of time until they all need to be paid.
However, Nylander will see a contract extension sooner than the other two, leading us to the topic at hand.
The big news today is what the Nashville Predators are going to pay Ryan Johansen for the next eight years.
The 24-year-old recently came off of a three-year contract that saw him earn $4 million per season and is now getting paid the big bucks.
Like, really big.
The Example
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The soon to be 25-year-old Johansen inked quite the big contract today, eight years and $8 million per season.
Is Johansen really worth that much?
Me, I don’t think so, but the Predators have set themselves up where they were able to be pretty flexible when it came to the cap.
Let’s take a quick look at his season by season point totals and to make things easier, I’ve separated them by games played, goals, assists, and points.
- 2011-12: 67-9-12-21
- 2012-13: 40-5-7-12
- 2013-14: 82-33-30-63
- 2014-15: 82-26-45-71
- 2015-16: 38-6-20-26
- 2016-17: 82-14-47-61
To recap, his career high is 71 points and he’s only amassed 60 points three times in his entire career.
Now, I’m not the kind of person that only believes in point totals as a representation of a players importance.
But I just don’t think he’s worth $64 million.
The Triple Trifecta
Does this kind of contract set the bar for teams like Toronto?
You bet it does, unfortunately, especially when all three amassed 60 points in their rookie season.
I wish we lived in a world where players saw something great in their teams and didn’t take as much money as humanly possible.
I also understand the fact that hockey’s a business and its work for those players, so money is definitely a factor.
Never think it isn’t.
That being said, is Nylander better than Johnsen?
Well, I’d like to see him hold the center position first, but not just yet.
What about Matthews and Marner, are they better?
I’ll let you answer that for yourself.
Value
If a team like Nashville values a player like Johansen at $64 million for eight years and we all know how much the triple trifecta are valued, then what would that say if they earned less?
Do the Leafs value them any less or does that have anything to do with it?
That’s assuming we’re all in agreeance that Matthews, Nylander, and Marner will all be better than Johansen.
It’s also very hard to say 100% right now because we’ve only seen one year out of them.
I think you get my point, though.