Post to Post: Will Artemi Panarin's Extension Kill the Bridge Contract?
Any serious NHL fan likely knows all about bridge deals. When a good young player comes off his entry-level contract, his team has a choice: Either sign him immediately to a long-term contract at significant dollars that will take him into unrestricted free agency, or settle for a deal between one and three years at a lesser amount.
With Artemi Panarin’s recent contract extension, the Chicago Blackhawks got neither the security of a long-term deal nor the usual discount that comes with a short-term pact. The restricted free agent agreed to a two-year deal (upon the conclusion of which he’ll be an unrestricted free agent) at significant money.
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Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman had the details:
At first glance, it’s hard to justify a two-year contract that pays Panarin as much as players like John Tavares and Taylor Hall are earning on long-term deals. But there’s more to it than first glance. Unlike Hall and Tavares, Panarin is signing his second deal at the age of 25. He isn’t still years away from arbitration; he’s eligible now.
That changes the comparison somewhat. If we go looking for comparable players signing deals at about the same age, the results made sense:
| Patrick Kane | 2012-14 | 24-25 | 116 | 124 | 1.07 | 8 | $10,500,000 |
| Phil Kessel | 2011-13 | 24-25 | 130 | 134 | 1.03 | 8 | $8,000,000 |
| Artemi Panarin | 2015-17 | 24-25 | 120 | 111 | 0.96 | 2 | $6,000,000 |
| Jakub Voracek | 2013-15 | 24-25 | 164 | 143 | 0.87 | 8 | $8,250,000 |
Panarin’s new contract won’t have much bearing on bridge deals, because the circumstances are unique. The CBA treats older players much differently than young ones, so Panarin's case isn’t comparable for most top scorers exiting their entry-level deals.
Anaheim Gets One Expansion Duck in a Row
January 1 is the first day that NHL teams can re-sign players on one-year deals to contract extensions. Usually a few pacts get signed in the early days of the new year, and the first such agreement this season was between the Anaheim Ducks and third-string goalie Dustin Tokarski, as per TVA’s Renaud Lavoie:
It’s a weird signing in some ways. Tokarski hasn’t been all that good in the AHL (16 games, 9-6-1 record, 0.889 save percentage), and even if he had been, he’s a journeyman No. 3 goalie.
The reason for Anaheim’s urgency here would seem to lie with the NHL’s expansion rules, which state that every team must expose one goalie signed through 2017-18 (or one qualified RFA goaltender). With Tokarski signed, the Ducks can now do that.
That just leaves the more sizable problem of protecting Jakob Silfverberg and all those defencemen.
Jared McCann Recalled Despite Poor AHL Numbers
It’s going to take a few years to be definitive about the outcome of this summer’s controversial Erik Gudbranson trade between the Florida Panthers and Vancouver Canucks, and one of the reasons is that we don’t know how good Jared McCann is going to be.
So far, though, the Panthers can’t be thrilled with what they’ve seen from the 2014 first-round pick, who was the principal return in the deal.
According to George Richards of the Miami Herald, McCann was recalled from the AHL on Thursday. He has just six points in 15 games in the minors, though it’s worth noting that nobody on Florida’s farm team is putting up good numbers this season.
McCann is only 20, so there’s time. That he’s been recalled is a decent indication that his scoring numbers in the minors aren’t telling us everything. Nevertheless, if he can’t deliver on his offensive potential, the Canucks are going to deserve some credit for trading him before the league realized it.
Speaking of Canucks First-Rounders, What About Jake Virtanen?
McCann isn’t the only first-round pick of the Canucks from the 2014 draft struggling to put up numbers in the minors. Jake Virtanen, who Vancouver drafted sixth overall that year and was projected as a power forward at the time, is also in a lengthy slump.
Red Line Report's 2014 Draft Guide (which rated Virtanen seventh) had a fairly typical summary of the player, calling him “a natural sniper whose shot is an absolute laser beam” and comparing him stylistically to Max Pacioretty.
Virtanen is a long way from that comparison right now, with just seven points in 20 games for AHL-Utica. Like McCann, he’s been assigned to the minors this year after spending almost all of last season on the Canucks roster. One wonders whether a more patient development path would have been in the interest of both players.
Signs of Life From Andrew Ladd
Andrew Ladd has struggled this season after the New York Islanders signed him to a big free-agent contract, but the last few games have been a marked improvement over his work in the early season. Ladd has four goals and five points in his last four games and had eight points in 14 December games overall.
What remains disconcerting is his shooting rate. Ladd’s shooting percentage this season is now 13.6 percent, higher than his career average. Yet his goals pace is still well back of the last few seasons, when he was a lock for 20-plus every year.
Ladd is averaging two fewer shot attempts per hour at five-on-five this season than he did last year, and four fewer per hour at five-on-four. Maybe picking up some goals will encourage him to be more liberal when it comes to putting the puck on net.
Statistical information courtesy of Hockey-Reference.com, Stats.HockeyAnalysis.com and TheAHL.com. Contract details via CapFriendly.com.
Jonathan Willis covers the NHL for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter for more of his work.
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