Salary Cap Deep Dive: San Jose Sharks
Navigating the salary cap is one of the more important tasks for any GM. Teams that can avoid total cap chaos by walking the tightrope of inking players to deals that match their value (or compensate for future value without breaking the bank) remain successful. Those that don’t see struggles and front office changes.
PHR will look at every NHL team and give a thorough look at their cap situation for the 2023-24 season. This will focus more on players who are regulars on the roster versus those who may find themselves shuttling between the AHL and NHL. All cap figures are courtesy of CapFriendly.
San Jose Sharks
Current Cap Hit: $81,392,547 (under the $83.5MM Upper Limit)
Entry-Level Contracts
F William Eklund (three years, $863K)
D Nikita Okhotyuk (one year, $789K)
Potential Bonuses
Eklund: $850K
Okhotiuk: $82.5K
Total: $932.5K
The Sharks have slow-played things with Eklund, giving him a taste of NHL action over the last two years but not enough to actually start his contract. Now that his deal can’t slide anymore, he’s a regular in the lineup. He’s off to a slow start this season and San Jose’s offensive woes will make it tough for him to hit on his four ‘A’ bonuses.
Okhotiuk is essentially waiver-blocked. San Jose isn’t using him much but they also don’t want to risk losing him for nothing on waivers. The end result is a lot of time on the bench which doesn’t bode well for his next contract or reaching some of his games played bonuses.
Signed Through 2023-24, Non-Entry-Level
D Calen Addison ($825K, RFA)
F Alexander Barabanov ($2.5MM, UFA)
F Ryan Carpenter ($775K, UFA)
F Anthony Duclair ($3MM, UFA)
D Ty Emberson ($775K, RFA)
F Mike Hoffman ($4.5MM, UFA)
G Kaapo Kahkonen ($2.75MM, UFA)
F Luke Kunin ($2.75MM, RFA)
F Kevin Labanc ($4.725MM, UFA)
F Oskar Lindblom ($2.5MM, UFA)
D Jacob MacDonald ($762.5K, UFA)
D Radim Simek ($2.25MM, UFA)
F Filip Zadina ($1.1MM, RFA)
After Labanc took a team-friendly one-year deal back in 2019-20, things have gone downhill as he has failed to pass the 33-point mark since then. At one point last month, it looked like he’d be waived. A change of scenery would likely do him some good but it’s almost certainly going to come at a fraction of this price. Hoffman appears to be heading for a sizable dip in pay as well after a tough couple of years in Montreal and a particularly rough start to this season. His shot is still dangerous but he might be better suited for a deeper team who can use him on the power play but hide him a bit at five-on-five. Those teams won’t be able to offer anywhere close to the type of money he’s making now.
Duclair was acquired from Florida over the summer with the Panthers looking to free up some cap space. A big year in a prominent role could also bode well for the winger but, as is the case with pretty much every other forward, he’s off to a tough start. Still, after a 31-goal showing in 2021-22, Duclair should at least have a chance at another short-term deal around this price. Barabanov is coming off a career year that saw him record 47 points in 68 games, a pretty nice bargain at his price. However, a finger injury is likely to keep him out for another month which won’t help his bargaining power. That said, a small raise could be achievable if he’s able to produce upon his return.
Kunin’s tenure with San Jose hasn’t gone great so far. Injuries limited him to just 31 games last season where he managed 13 points and he’s producing at a lower clip in the early going this year. Owed a $3MM qualifying offer in June, that price tag might be too rich for the Sharks. Lindblom landed this deal after being bought out by Philadelphia but has struggled with his new team to the point where he cleared waivers in camp and is now in the minors with a dead cap charge of $1.35MM. As things stand, even getting that much next summer could be difficult.
Zadina walked away from guaranteed money with Detroit to take a lot less with San Jose in the hopes that a new environment could help him revive his game. The results have been spotty so far but with him being controllable through restricted free agency until 2027, they can afford a gradual development curve. A small raise with arbitration eligibility should come his way. Carpenter has seen limited minutes so far and is likely to stay in a depth forward role which will keep him around this price point moving forward.
Simek has been a depth piece for the majority of this contract (which is in its fourth year) which resulted in him clearing waivers in training camp. Accordingly, he has a dead cap charge of $1.1MM which, like Lindblom, might be more than what he’ll be able to get on the open market this summer. Addison was recently acquired from Minnesota in a move that basically gives him a fresh start where he’ll play more frequently. After putting up 29 points last season, the Wild basically had no choice but to give him a low-cost, one-year deal. Next summer, Addison will be arbitration-eligible and should see this price tag double at a minimum.
Emberson was picked up on waivers in training camp and is getting his first taste of NHL action. He has held his own so far but a larger sample size is needed to see if he’s worthy of a bigger raise and a multi-year deal or another one-year pact if he winds up being a depth defender. MacDonald is another depth piece who, at 30, is almost certain to stay around the minimum salary on his next deal.
Things haven’t gone quite as planned for Kahkonen. Former GM Doug Wilson moved a capable blueliner in Jacob Middleton to get the netminder back at the 2021-22 trade deadline with the hopes that he’d be their goalie of the future. The way he finished off that season provided some cause for optimism but since then, it has not been pretty. He posted a save percentage of just .883 last season and this year, it’s even worse early on; with how bad the Sharks are, there’s no guarantee it will improve either. He’s one of the more intriguing goalies in this free agent class; is it a case of him just needing a more structured environment to succeed in? Or did he peak a couple of years ago? How teams feel will ultimately decide if he gets a contract similar to this one or if he’s heading for a sizable pay cut as well.
Signed Through 2024-25
G Mackenzie Blackwood ($2.35MM, UFA)
F Mikael Granlund ($5MM, UFA)
D Nikolai Knyzhov ($1.25MM, UFA)
D Jan Rutta ($2.75MM, UFA)
F Givani Smith ($800K, UFA)
F Nico Sturm ($2MM, UFA)
F Fabian Zetterlund ($1.45MM, RFA)
Yes, things didn’t go well for Granlund in Pittsburgh but before that, he had 100 points in his last 138 games with Nashville. Accordingly, a bounce-back performance is doable in theory but this might not be the best situation for that to happen. At the moment, it’s hard to see him getting this type of money two years from now but if things stabilize somewhat and Granlund is a key part of that happening, he might be able to come closer than some might think. Sturm had a career year last season, his first with San Jose as he put up career bests across the board while providing some positive value on his contract. If he can stay close to 25 points while being a faceoff specialist, his market should be a bit stronger in 2025 where he could push for closer to $3MM.
Zetterlund did well with New Jersey last year but struggled mightily after being acquired in the Timo Meier swap. This season, he has looked a bit more comfortable and is the early team leader in goals. He’ll be looking to establish himself as a dependable middle-six winger moving forward and if he does, his next contract should at least go past the $2MM mark. Smith has been a depth player when he has been on an NHL roster and that’s unlikely to change with the Sharks which should keep him around this price point two years from now.
Rutta is best utilized in a complementary role and the state of San Jose’s depth chart makes that somewhat difficult to accomplish. When he signed this contract with Pittsburgh, it seemed like an overpayment at the time and if he winds up languishing with the Sharks for most of the remainder of it, he could also be looking at a small cut on his next contract. Knyzhov has battled significant injury trouble and at this point, it’s just about re-establishing himself as a regular, a role he last had in 2020-21. If he can do so and stay healthy, he could push for closer to $2MM but would need to become a top-four piece with the Sharks to aim much higher.
Blackwood struggled with injuries and inconsistency with New Jersey, resulting in his rights being dealt to San Jose in the spring. They non-tendered him but quickly agreed to this deal. The 26-year-old has fared better than Kahkonen but is struggling behind a weakened back end. He’ll need to fare at least a bit better if he wants a shot at another deal around this price point; even keeping them competitive most nights might be enough.
Signed Through 2025-26
D Matt Benning ($1.25MM, UFA)
D Kyle Burroughs ($1.1MM, UFA)
D Mario Ferraro ($3.25MM, UFA)
D Marc-Edouard Vlasic ($7MM, UFA)
To say that Vlasic’s contract hasn’t aged well would be an extreme understatement. The decline in performance started in year two and has continued since then. In his prime, Vlasic was a prime shutdown defenseman but now, he’s struggling to handle even number six minutes and has been healthy scratched at times. There is signing bonus money in each of the remaining years of the contract which must be paid in full with a buyout. Even so, a buyout starts to look a bit palatable this summer when the cost would be $3.833MM, $4.833MM, and then two years at $1.333MM. San Jose isn’t in a spot where they need to free up cap space but keeping an aging veteran around at the expense of a younger player isn’t the best option either and a trade just isn’t palatable.
Ferraro’s contract was interesting at the time it was signed in that it brought him right to unrestricted free agency with no extra years of club control. He’s playing a bigger role than he probably should but in a fourth or fifth role, he’d fit in well with quite a few teams. Unless things really don’t go well between now and 2026, he should be positioned to earn an increase on this deal even with his struggles as a top-pairing player.
Benning’s contract was another somewhat curious one in that sixth defenders usually don’t get four-year deals. He actually had a career season offensively last year, making him a bit of a bargain at the moment although he’d need to continue to produce near that level to earn any sort of significant raise. Closer to the trade deadline, he could be an under-the-radar trade candidate. Burroughs also inked a multi-year deal to be a role player on the back end, pretty good stability for a player who had less than 100 NHL games under his belt at the time he signed. He’s also playing a bigger role than he should but if he can hold his own at the 20-minute mark, his market should be stronger in 2026.
Oilers Notes: Goaltending, Bourgault, Coaching
Edmonton’s goaltending situation certainly hasn’t been good this season with Stuart Skinner and now-demoted Jack Campbell combining for a 4.10 GAA and a .862 SV%, a big reason why the Oilers are now tied with San Jose for last in the NHL. Accordingly, there has been an expectation that a move will be made to shore up their netminders. In a recent 32 Thoughts podcast (audio link), Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman relayed that there were some in the league who thought Edmonton was nearing a deal to do just that on Wednesday. Clearly, that hasn’t come to fruition (yet, at least) but it would appear as if GM Ken Holland is trying to get something done on that front. But with the team in a money-in, money-out situation to stay cap-compliant, it’ll be easier said than done.
More from Edmonton:
- Speaking today on TSN 690 (audio link), TSN’s Darren Dreger indicated that prospect Xavier Bourgault is “a piece the Canadiens have coveted for a while”. The 21-year-old was the 22nd pick back in 2021 and is in his second season with AHL Bakersfield. A strong scorer in junior, Bourgault had a decent rookie campaign with 34 points in 62 games last season while he has four in seven contests so far this year. Montreal is one of the teams still carrying three goalies although Jake Allen might not work in their salary structure, extension talks have started with Samuel Montembeault, and Cayden Primeau isn’t the proven solution between the pipes that Edmonton should be looking for.
- TSN’s Ryan Rishaug relayed earlier today (Twitter link) that nothing was imminent with regards to possible coaching change. Jay Woodcroft is only in his second full season with the team and even with the ugly start this season, his teams have played to a .640 point percentage. Postmedia’s Robert Tychkowski notes that a change, if one is made, would give them their fifth bench boss in eight years with a good chunk of the core there for all of those moves. As a result, while making a move behind the bench might be the easiest lever to pull, recent history would suggest that it might not change a whole lot.
Golden Knights Assign Kaedan Korczak To AHL
With Vegas set to welcome back Zach Whitecloud to their lineup tonight, they needed to create the salary cap and roster room needed to do so. That move has been made as PuckPedia relays (Twitter link) that blueliner Kaedan Korczak has been assigned to AHL Henderson.
The 22-year-old was sent down at the end of training camp before being recalled following Whitecloud’s LTIR placement. While he didn’t suit up in every game, he has been relatively productive when he has played, notching a goal and three assists in seven contests while logging a little under 16 minutes a night. For his NHL career, Korczak has six points in 18 appearances, impressive numbers considering he’s coming off a 14-point showing in 50 games with the Silver Knights last season.
Meanwhile, Whitecloud’s return will be a welcome one. The 26-year-old was a steady part of their third pairing last season, notching 12 points, 97 hits, and 90 blocks in 59 regular season games while averaging a little over 17 minutes per appearance. That playing time went up in the playoffs to a little under 19 minutes per contests while he added eight points in 22 games to help Vegas win the Stanley Cup.
With this assignment and Whitecloud’s subsequent activation, Vegas is down to just $85K in LTIR space while Robin Lehner and Daniil Miromanov still on there. That said, the Golden Knights are still carrying a full 23-man roster so they shouldn’t be facing a situation where they have to play short a player for a game (due to not being able to afford a recall) for a little while at least.
East Notes: Laine, Jarry, Zub
Blue Jackets forward Patrik Laine has skated over the past couple of days as he works his way back from an upper-body injury, notes Brian Hedger of the Columbus Dispatch (Twitter link). The 25-year-old got off to a quiet start to his year with a goal and an assist in his first four games while also making the adjustment to playing down the middle on a regular basis. Head coach Pascal Vincent noted that Laine responded well after today’s skate which could be a sign that he could be back sooner than later. When that happens, Hedger notes that the team hasn’t decided if they will move Adam Fantilli back to the wing or if they’ll leave him in his natural center role and put Laine back in his natural wing position.
Elsewhere in the Eastern Conference:
- It appears as if the Penguins will avoid being without their starting goalie for long. Matt Vensel of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette relays that Tristan Jarry is currently listed as day-to-day after leaving yesterday’s game early against Anaheim. As of yet, it’s worth noting that Pittsburgh hasn’t brought up one of their other AHL goaltenders, a sign that Jarry could be available to at least dress as the backup against Los Angeles. The 28-year-old has a 2.51 GAA and a .907 SV% in nine starts so far this season.
- Earlier today, Senators head coach D.J. Smith expressed optimism that defenseman Artem Zub would be back tonight against Toronto, he wound up being scratched for the seventh straight game, notes Postmedia’s Bruce Garrioch (Twitter link). It’s the seventh straight game he has missed with a concussion. With Ottawa also missing Thomas Chabot and Erik Brannstrom at the moment, getting Zub back will be a critical addition but they’ll have to wait a little longer for that to happen.
Kraken Recall Shane Wright And Ryan Winterton
Seattle has added some reinforcements to its roster in advance of their game tomorrow against Colorado. The team announced (Twitter link) that they’ve recalled forwards Shane Wright and Ryan Winterton from AHL Coachella Valley.
Wright was the fourth overall selection back in 2022 but wasn’t deemed to be ready for full-time action in the NHL. Since he wasn’t eligible to play in the minors on a full-time basis, Seattle gave him spot duty in the NHL (eight games where he had a goal and an assist) plus a one-time conditioning assignment in the minors until the World Juniors. After that event, he was sent back to major junior where he had 37 points in 20 games. Once his Kingston team was eliminated, he became eligible to play in the minors and played in all 24 postseason contests with the Firebirds, notching nine points.
Following training camp, Seattle successfully received a waiver for Wright to play in Coachella Valley this season over returning for what would have been his final season in junior. He’s off to a nice start in the minors this season, picking up six points in his first seven games, putting him tied for fourth on the team in scoring.
As Wright doesn’t turn 20 until early January, the nine-game threshold for junior-aged players still comes into play. Wright can play up to nine times for Seattle this season without officially burning the first year of his entry-level contract. Accordingly, it wouldn’t be surprising if this winds up being a shorter-term recall, one that lets them evaluate where he’s at before returning him to the Firebirds where he’d receive more playing time. Should he play in ten or more games, the next threshold to watch for would be 40 games on the NHL roster at which point he’d receive a year of service time towards free agent eligibility.
As for Winterton, the 20-year-old was a third-round pick by the Kraken in 2021 and he certainly has outperformed that draft slot. While injuries limited him to just 34 regular season games with OHL London last year, he was quite impactful during the Knights’ playoff run. During that time, he picked up 13 goals and 16 assists in 21 games to lead the league in playoff scoring.
Winterton is now in his first professional campaign and is off to a good start as well, collecting three goals and two helpers in his first seven games. Unlike Wright, the nine-game threshold doesn’t matter for Winterton.
Seattle had two vacant roster spots so no corresponding moves needed to be made to add Wright and Winterton to the active roster. One of them seems likely to replace Jordan Eberle; Geoff Baker of The Seattle Times reports that the winger suffered a cut from a skate blade to the upper part of his leg in practice today. He underwent tests to determine the severity of the injury although GM Ron Francis feels the worst-case scenario was avoided.
Pacific Notes: Sharks, Benning, Golden Knights, Hamblin
While the Sharks snapped their season-long losing streak at 11 games yesterday with a win over the Flyers, clearly, there’s a lot of work to be done still. However, don’t expect any reinforcements coming from the minors. Speaking with Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News, GM Mike Grier indicated that while they’ve thought about bringing up some of their better prospects from the minors (including defensemen Henry Thrun and Shakir Mukhamadullin plus forward Daniil Gushchin), they’d like to see things get more stabilized first over putting those youngsters into a less than ideal situation from a development perspective. Getting captain Logan Couture back would help on that front but with him suffering a recent setback in his recovery lately, there’s no timeline for when he’ll be able to join the lineup.
Elsewhere in the Pacific Division:
- Still with the Sharks, Pashelka reports in a separate piece that blueliner Matt Benning has resumed skating as he works his way back from an undisclosed injury. The 29-year-old is coming off a career year offensively but, like many San Jose players, is off to a rough start this year with just a single point in his first eight appearances while averaging 18:29 per night. Benning is on injured reserve but has already been on there for more than a week, meaning they’ll be able to activate him as soon as he’s cleared to return.
- Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal relays (Twitter link) that Vegas center Chandler Stephenson will miss at least the next two games with an upper-body injury. The 29-year-old is off to a strong start in his contract year with 10 points in his first 12 games, good for fifth on the Golden Knights in scoring. Jonas Rondbjerg was recalled yesterday for the fifth time in less than a month and is expected to take Stephenson’s spot in the lineup. Meanwhile, Gotz adds that blueliner Zach Whitecloud is with Vegas on the road and could potentially be back as soon as Friday. The 26-year-old has yet to play this season due to an upper-body injury and is currently on LTIR but is eligible to be activated as he has missed both 10 games and 24 days.
- PuckPedia notes (Twitter link) that the Oilers have converted forward James Hamblin’s emergency exception recall into a regular one. When they sent Jack Campbell and down and recalled Calvin Pickard earlier today, Edmonton had enough cap space to fit Hamblin into its cap structure, meaning they were no longer eligible for the cap exemption he was recalled with. The 24-year-old logged nearly 11 minutes in his season debut back on Monday.
Five Key Stories: 10/30/23 – 11/5/23
As the calendar turned to November, there was plenty of news of note across the NHL which is recapped in our key stories.
Senators Out A First-Round Pick And A GM: Back at the 2022 trade deadline, a move that would have sent Evgenii Dadonov from Vegas to Anaheim was vetoed after the fact when it was revealed the Ducks were on his no-trade list. The Golden Knights weren’t aware of that fact, resulting in them asking the league to look into it. That investigation is now complete and they came down hard on Ottawa, who had dealt the winger to Vegas the previous offseason. It was determined that they withheld the no-trade details during the trade call and as punishment, they will be required to forfeit a first-round pick in 2024, 2025, or 2026. It’s their choice as to which year they opt to forfeit and it must be their own selection, not one they acquired from another team (such as the one they received from Detroit in the Alex DeBrincat trade).
New owner Michael Andlauer decided that this was the final straw for GM Pierre Dorion. While initially termed as a firing, Dorion officially resigned his position. He was at the helm in Ottawa since 2016 and helped bring in top young talents like Tim Stutzle, Jake Sanderson, and Brady Tkachuk to the fold but more recently, he’ll be remembered for creating an unworkable cap situation that limited them from re-signing Shane Pinto before his gambling suspension. Steve Staios, who just joined the organization a little over a month ago, will serve as interim GM.
Four For McAvoy: Boston’s back end took a big short-term hit as defenseman Charlie McAvoy received a four-game suspension for an illegal check to the head on Panthers defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson that saw him receive a match penalty at the time. The 25-year-old had gotten off to a strong start to his year with eight points in nine games but that’s on hold for now. With Ekman-Larsson returning to Florida’s lineup quickly, McAvoy has appealed the ban, a move that doesn’t typically happen too often (although Rasmus Andersson went that route last month with no success). Since it’s under six games, the appeal will be heard by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman.
Backstrom Takes A Leave: Long-time Capitals center Nicklas Backstrom underwent hip resurfacing surgery back in June 2022 but returned to the lineup earlier than expected. He made it through training camp and the first few weeks of this season but has decided to take an indefinite leave of absence from the team while he determines his next steps. The 35-year-old has spent the entirety of his 17-year NHL career with Washington and sits second to Alex Ovechkin for the most points in franchise history; it remains to be seen if he’ll return to add to his 1,033 career points. Backstrom is signed through next season with a $9.2MM AAV so retirement won’t be on the table but he has already been placed on injured reserve and will likely be shifted to LTIR at some point.
Talks On Hold: Not long ago, it looked like the Flames were making progress on extension talks with prominent pending unrestricted free agents Noah Hanifin and Elias Lindholm. However, with the team off to a rough start this season, sitting just 3-7-1, those discussions are now on hold. If GM Craig Conroy determines that the team isn’t as close to winning as he originally hoped, it’s possible that he turns around and becomes a seller at which point locking up his two key UFAs could work against him. For now, it appears it will be a wait-and-see approach to see if Calgary can turn things around but they’ll need to show some progress sooner than later.
Hanging Them Up: Veteran center Paul Stastny has decided to call it a career, announcing his retirement at the age of 37. The 2005 second-round pick played in 17 seasons at the top level with five different teams including eight years with Colorado who originally drafted him. In his prime, Stastny was a quality two-way middleman who was above average at the faceoff dot throughout his career. He hangs up his skates with 293 goals and 529 assists in 1,145 career regular season games; his 822 points rank him in 20th place among U.S.-born players in NHL history.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
Oilers Recall James Hamblin On Emergency Basis
When Connor Brown wasn’t able to play on Saturday, the Oilers were forced to play short a player. In doing so, they created a short-term cap-exempt emergency recall. The team announced that the recall has been used on James Hamblin who has been promoted from AHL Bakersfield.
The 24-year-old made his NHL debut last season with Edmonton, getting into ten games with the big club. He was held without a point but recorded a dozen shots on goal while averaging just under nine minutes per game. He spent most of last season in the minors where he had 10 goals and 18 assists in 52 games with the Condors. This season, Hamblin is off to a good start with two goals and three helpers in six contests, helping him earn this promotion.
Hamblin is in the final season of a two-year, entry-level contract which carries a cap hit of $807.5K. The AAV being that low permitted him to be the recall; teams are limited to bringing up a player making no more than $100K above the league minimum salary ($775K this year) when using a cap-exempt promotion. Once Brown or Mattias Janmark return from their respective injuries, Hamblin will need to be returned to Bakersfield.
Ducks Activate Alex Killorn, Assign Robert Hagg To AHL
The Ducks are welcoming back a key forward tonight as they announced that they have activated winger Alex Killorn from injured reserve. To make room for him on the roster, defenseman Robert Hagg was returned to AHL San Diego.
Killorn landed the richest deal for a forward in free agency last summer with Anaheim inking the 34-year-old to a four-year, $25MM agreement. He was coming off a career year with Tampa Bay, one that saw him record 27 goals and 37 assists in 82 games while adding five points in six playoff contests against Toronto.
While the Ducks aren’t expected to be contending in the short term, GM Pat Verbeek clearly prioritized adding some veterans to what was (and still is) a pretty young roster and was hoping that Killorn would line up in a prominent role to start the season. Instead, he suffered a fractured finger during the preseason, one that kept him out of the lineup for nearly five weeks.
As for Hagg, he was recalled just yesterday so his time with the big club was certainly short-lived. He was brought up to serve as an extra defender with Tristan Luneau on a conditioning assignment but as Luneau remains part of Anaheim’s active roster while with San Diego, the Ducks needed Hagg’s roster spot to activate Killorn in advance of tonight’s game against Vegas. He has played in three games for the Gulls so far this season.
Nino Niederreiter Hoping To Sign An Extension With Jets
Getting players to sign extensions in Winnipeg has been a hit-or-miss proposition for GM Kevin Cheveldayoff. In recent months, clearly, Pierre-Luc Dubois wanted no part of that but he got Mark Scheifele and Connor Hellebuyck to sign on the dotted line. When those two did so, it took care of their two more prominent pending unrestricted free agents.
One notable among the list still needing a new deal is Nino Niederreiter. Scott Billeck of the Winnipeg Sun reports that the winger’s camp has made it known to Cheveldayoff that he’d like to stick around and that his agent Andre Rufener will be in town this week to discuss a possible new contract for his client.
The 31-year-old didn’t have a particularly strong market in his last trip through unrestricted free agency in the 2022 offseason. It took more than a week for him to land a two-year, $8MM contract with Nashville, a move that represented a $1.25MM cut in pay despite putting up a 24-goal showing with Carolina the year before.
Niederreiter’s stay with the Predators was fairly short-lived as he was moved to Winnipeg in the days leading up to the trade deadline back in February for a second-round pick. He finished up the season relatively well with 13 points in 22 games while adding four more in their five-game first-round exit at the hands of Vegas.
Now, with a full training camp with the Jets under his belt, Niederreiter is off to a strong start to his 2023-24 season, notching five goals and four assists in his first 11 games, good for a share of the team lead in points. With that in mind, it’s not surprising to see him want to extend his stay as the fit with Winnipeg appears to be a good one.
Speculatively, for Niederreiter to justify signing an extension this early in the season, it might take a bit more than his current price tag to get him to put pen to paper on a new deal. On top of that, it stands to reason that a contract longer than two years will likely be required. But if Winnipeg likes the way that he’s fitting in, an early extension would make a lot of sense on their end as well. If one happens, it’ll be a pretty good longer-term outcome for a trade deadline pickup that largely went under the radar last season.