Here’s a article I wrote on the merits and detriments of the contracts handed out to the Blues David Backes and the Flyers Jeff Carter for Hockey Prospectus.
I also have a post coming up on HP soon where I unveil the Heavy Lifter Index to profile some of the NHL’s best players against the other team’s top lines.
Here is an excerpt from the Backes-Carter column:
“In the case of these two contract extensions, the teams are trying to lock up young, talented forwards to reasonable long term contracts. While they may have taken different approaches to how they’ve managed the cap, it’s very important to understand which team got better value for their money.
Carter, at age 25, already has a 46 goal season under his belt and is considered an elite offensive talent. Backes, at age 26, is a big winger with a solid scoring touch, but hasn’t racked up points the way Carter has.
Carter 398 games 153 goals 139 assists 11.0% shooting percentage Backes 297 games 74 goals 89 assists 11.8% shooting percentage
On the surface, Jeff Carter has the better offensive numbers and his contract extension was more lucrative, earning him roughly $750,000 per season more than Backes. But given the difference in goal scoring skill, shouldn’t Carter be making a lot more than Backes? If the only thing that mattered in the NHL were goals and assists, then the answer would be yes, but we all know that there is a lot more to the game than that.”
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