Breaking Down Johnny Boychuk's Contract Extension with the New York Islanders

There’s a one-word descriptor that captures the essence of Johnny Boychuk’s new contract with the New York Islanders: necessary. The team really had very little choice but to pay the pending free agent what he wanted.

And, boy, did it ever.

Boychuk announced the news himself on Thursday, and his excitement was obvious. Five minutes later, Newsday’s Arthur Staple revealed the terms of the contract, and it was clear Boychuk had reason for excitement:

The problem with the deal isn’t really the money, which is pretty reasonable for a player of Boychuk’s stature.

Glancing through NHL Numbers’ list of the NHL’s highest-paid defencemen, we see that Boychuk’s salary-cap hit is within $500,000 of that of comparable veterans like Brent Seabrook, Matt Niskanen, Brent Burns, Tobias Enstrom, Andrei Markov, Dan Girardi, James Wisniewksi and Brooks Orpik.

Orpik and Girardi are particularly interesting because their deals are relatively new, they play similar styles and there’s a good case that Boychuk is a superior player to either one.

So the Islanders didn’t really overpay in terms of money.

The trouble is term. Boychuk is 31 years old now, with his deal kicking in next season and carrying him past his 39th birthday. There aren’t very many defencemen who are still big contributors that late into their careers, and the list gets shorter if we look just at big, physical defencemen with a modest offensive game.

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Still, there is precedent. Adam Foote is an interesting point of comparison. Boychuk is listed at 6'2", 225 pounds. Foote came in at 6'2", 220 pounds. Both players shoot right and are known for a physical brand of hockey.

Foote’s numbers at the same age as the Isles defenceman are a good match too:

• Boychuk, 2014-15: 59 games, seven goals, 32 points
• Foote, 2001-02: 55 games, five goals, 27 points

Foote played more minutes per game (an astounding 25 minutes and 59 seconds compared to Boychuk's 21:37) but—like Boychuk—was his team’s No. 2 defenceman and got ice time in all situations.

He had two more seasons in a very similar role for Colorado, then signed with a bad Columbus team after the NHL lockout and had two more seasons in a heavy-minutes role despite a declining game. He was then dealt back to the Avalanche and played roughly 20 minutes per game over the next two seasons.

If Boychuk follows a similar course, the Islanders can reasonably count on him in his current role for two to three more seasons, followed by a slow transition into a second-pairing defenceman.

Even with a rising salary cap and even if Boychuk follows a similar arc to Foote's, he likely isn’t going to be good value in the later years of this deal.

The Islanders, however, really had very little choice but to take that chance.

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Boychuk has been a big part of New York’s resurgence this year. An Islanders team that has been a laughingstock for years is suddenly a contender sitting in second place in the Metropolitan Division, and Boychuk is helping everywhere.

He leads the team in ice time while short-handed and contributes a booming right-handed shot at the point on the power play. He’s also been fantastic at even strength. When he’s on the ice, the Islanders outscore the opposition by nearly a two-to-one margin and have a whopping 34-24 edge in shots over an average hour.

It’s all but impossible to replace that kind of contribution at the best of times, and with a weak free-agent crop and a lot of futures already shipped out to bring Boychuk and others in, this is hardly the best of times.

Boychuk’s also an important piece because he brings things the Islanders’ other defencemen simply don’t.

We’ve cited Boychuk’s age as a negative given the term of this deal, but it’s a positive on a young blue line. Of New York’s top four defencemen, Boychuk is the only one older than 25. Along with Travis Hamonic, he also adds some much-needed size to a group that is otherwise on the small side.

The simple fact is that the Islanders needed to keep Boychuk. Heading for unrestricted free agency in a year when there really aren’t that many other options, he was able to command money and term.

This contract is neither a bargain nor an albatross. It’s simply market value for a player who is an essential part of the team.

Statistics courtesy of NHL.com and BehindtheNet.ca.

Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.