Patrick Sharp, 26, signed a 4 year contract today at 15.6M [3.9M/season] avoiding restricted free agency.
He's posted a strong year with 22 goals and 36 points in 44 games. Chicago is banking on the hope that Sharp's offensive game continues at the current year's pace for the next 4 years.
Meanwhile, the numbers show that a guy is shooting at a 19.6% rate, much higher than his career average of 13.2%.
From Chicago's perspective, I don't like it. I'll be honest in saying that I don't watch too many games not involving the Oilers, aside from the playoffs. However, looking at the career numbers, I don't believe the ones posted this year are sustainable in the long run. Sharp also doesn't have a history of putting up big numbers going back to his junior days. Too much for a guy that likely would have been in the middle of the line for possible RFA offersheets.
Perhaps Kevin Lowe did singlehandedly change the market. Or perhaps GMs are irrationally worrying about the "RFA game." Or just perhaps, my salary expectations lag behind inflation and the rising cap.
We'll find out more in the summer.
Stay tuned.
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1 comment:
I suppose it's better to throw money at a guy who's worked his way through the minors and into an NHL job rather than, say, Alexander Daigle or Alexei Yashin, but still, that's a lot of cash for a guy who's never scored more than 20 goals or 40 points prior to this year.
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