Sam Gagner, the 6th overall pick formerly pegged as the franchise savior of the Edmonton Oilers, signed a two year deal yesterday worth 4.55 million dollars. Now you may be wondering, "isn't that a little much to be paying a guy who has scored 41 points in each of his last two season, and scored 46 the season before that, and is a career minus player?" The answer is yes. Nevertheless, it's a smart move on both sides of the contract. From the organization's perspective, the term is short enough that they escaped with a very manageable cap hit. Considering what Gagner could still become, 2.25 million dollars a season is a steal. From Gagner's perspective, the contract doesn't cut into the prime of his career, meaning that he can potentially spin this tenure into a multi-year deal fro more money on a greater array of teams. Gagner will most likely center the first line this year, with Andrew Cogliano (also an RFA this offseason) most likely filling in the number two spot. If he does in fact receive first line minutes, I'd peg Gagner for a season with about 55-62 points. Still, even that may be a stretch considering the unit around him. Though super studs Jordan Eberle and Taylor hall come into the picture this year, there just isn't enough firepower in the top six to get to that point projection. Nonetheless, if Gagner gets a season feeding Dustin Penner (assuming he can climb over the 25 goal mark), then it's easily a possibility.
Stempniak on the other hand, is a much more interesting case. The terms of his deal have not been disclosed, much to the chagrin of anyone paying attention to the enigmatic case of Mr. Stempniak. The former Leafs forward netted 14 goals in 62 games during his time in Toronto last season, after which he was subsequently moved to Phoenix at the trade deadline. Upon his arrival in the sunbelt, he proceeded to then score another 14 goals...in 18 games. Thus, the question must be begged, who did the Coyotes pay for: the Stempniak that lit up the last 18 games of the season, or the Stempniak that is a career third liner that doesn't put the puck in the net when it counts? My guess is they paid for a combination of the two. They brought him there for the express purpose of having him produce offense. Thus, I believe they will pay him like a sniper, rather than a checker who can score. However, he also had a horrendous playoffs, which would give the Coyotes an excuse to shave some cash off of the deal. Additionally, this has been an incredibly tough off season for free agents. As teams have been crushed by cap crunch, we have seen an incredible drop off in the number of big money contracts that go off (the economic climate doesn't help either). Consequently, Stempniak probably wasn't payed as much as Mr. 14 Goals in 18 Games, but was payed more than Mr. Toronto.
Alas, none of this really matters, because neither team is winning the Cup. Unless of course Phoenix managed to somehow turn Derek Morris into Zbynek Michalek, and the Oilers managed to change their entire roster.
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