Happy for Kassian but not happy

I’m very happy for Zack Kassian. He should win a Masterton. I’m glad he got paid. The only saving grace is that I think he would’ve got this contract on the open market. I don’t think it’s unreasonable to say that he could’ve got a 3 x 3 in the UFA market this summer. I would’ve been even happier for him if that had happened.

Kassian went from a player we could’ve traded at the deadline and got a good to great return on (because his cost was 2 million and was expiring) to a guy we now couldn’t trade even if we wanted to (because he’s signed for 4 years and at about 1 million to much and 1 year too much).

Flarwick has repeatedly pointed out that Kassian, 1 year ago, was asking for a trade as a 28 year old making 2 million a year. There were zero takers. Now, at 29, he’s worth more? The only thing that has changed is Kassian’s spot in the lineup and Archibald has already proven that you get more points on Connor’s line. For the record, it will happen, but Kassian has yet to get 30 points in a season.

This is a classic ‘once the ink dries you’ll never get rid of this player’ Oiler’s contract.

It’s also a classic ‘once the ink dries you’ll never get rid of this player’ Holland contract.

Here is the Oiler’s cap.

https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/oilers

Here is Detroit’s cap (about 90% of this is Holland contracts).

https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/redwings

Both teams have awful cap situations.

The Abdelkader comparison has been around ever since the Kassian 4 x 4 type rumours started. Another GM that loved rewarding aging vets with overpays was Chia. We’re literally knee deep in GM’s that love to give players with ‘intangibles’ similar contracts to players with actual NHL results.

Holland has been around about a year now and has been pretty quiet. However, I’d like to point out something that he has done to our cap.

Next season we will be paying:

Zack Kassian 3.2 million

Milan Lucic 750K

Andrej Sekera 2.5 million

This adds up to 6.45 million dollars for those 3 players.

The seasons after that it goes down by 1 million and it will be 5.45 million dollars for those 3 players.

The season after that it remains at 5.45 million dollars.

NOTE: If you feel it’s unfair to include Lucic because we won that trade then subtract 750K from 6.45 million and 5.45 million. My point stands.

5 to 6 million could buy a good complimentary Top 6 player. All that money is entirely on Ken Holland’s Oiler Resume. Now go look back at the Detroit cap and realize they are on pace for 50 points and are cap poor this season. There is a trend here. Holland’s genius was in a non cap world.

I keep reading that we are very lucky to have a guy like Kassian because there aren’t many of them around anymore. That’s not true. There are a tonne of super fast guys who can punch in the AHL and ECHL. Guys like Kassian are rare because they are going extinct. Much like shot blocking stay at home D are going extinct too. Having one doesn’t make you unique, it makes you on the wrong side of the way the game is moving.

We are literally one year away from Kris Russel’s contract expiring and we sign another similar contract for a similar type of player.

I’m told guys like Kassian help maintain the code and reduce cheapshots. Kassian was in last night’s game. Here are 2 things that happened, less than 24 hours ago, right in front of Kassian:

Please note that the woodchopper on that play is Matthew Tkachuk! The guy who Kassian ‘taught a lesson to’ after ‘taking him to the woodshed’ earlier in the game. He doesn’t look very deterred to me at all. Worth noting that Tkachuk played in 3 on 3 OT and was one of the shooters in the shootout. Zack sat quietly on the bench during all this. Final minutes were Tkachuk with 19 minutes and 1 assist and Zack with 12 minutes and 0 points.

Mark Giordano is the same guy that almost ended McDavid’s season about 50 games ago. He’s clearly not deterred by Zack Kassian either. In fact, every shitty thing that has happened to McDavid has happened with Kassian or Lucic in the lineup. These types of players don’t deter anything.

As a parting thought that I read recently (I’m sorry, I don’t know the source or I’d link it. If it was you, then let me know and I’ll replace this with your tweet).

The only guy that took a discount to play with Connor McDavid is Connor McDavid!