Hockey fans around the world were shocked when Leo Carlsson got an $18 million offer sheet for five years from the Philadelphia Flyers. Suddenly, the NHL landscape was shaken to its very core and fans were frantically panicking everywhere.
What were the Heated Rivalry fans in the #hockeytwt atmosphere going to do when their precious Macklin Celebrini was faced with potentially leaving the San Jose Sharks? What about Will Smith, his "love interest"? You can't possibly separate him from Celebrini now! Otherwise, the Tumblr fantasies are thrown out the window! That's not even mentioning how Anaheim Ducks fans are feeling about Carlsson right now!
But in all seriousness, the Golden Knights had a similar situation with Pavel Dorofeyev. They had a looming restricted free agent who was going to fetch a good contract. The difference was that general manager Kelly McCrimmon handled everything differently. How, you ask?
Why, he cut his losses before a team gave him an offer sheet. In turn, that has resulted in teams overpaying for Vegas's restricted free agents, with Nicolas Hague and Dorofeyev being shining examples. The moral of the story? Take action on your restricted free agents before someone else does. Otherwise, it'll end badly for you.
The Vegas Golden Knights know when to fold them when negotiations get rough
Kelly McCrimmon talked extensively about Dorofeyev's contract situation and how his price tag got too high. Mind you, it wasn't like he wanted the Russian winger to take in New York Knicks games with Danhausen.
"From a team standpoint, this is the business of hockey. Pav was making, I think, $1.9 million with us last year. He's now going to be making $11 million a season for seven more years. It's well-earned, but it just puts us in a situation where it can't be accommodated here. Again, this is a case where we loved the player. He was really, really important for us, but we needed to take the opportunity to work on getting our cap compliant, and he was part of how we did that."Kelly McCrimmon on Pavel Dorofeyev
But the price range was simply too much to bear. As mentioned on Jacob's Realm, you don't want to overload your team with players over $10+ million AAV. Otherwise, you end up looking like the Toronto Maple Leafs. You want to ensure that you have plenty of depth to go around if you're looking to contend for the Stanley Cup every season.
Yes, the salary cap is expected to go up in the future with the league's growing revenues. But you're still left with big contracts from Mitch Marner and Jack Eichel. How are you going to fill the holes in your roster when you're navigating through heavy contracts?
That's why McCrimmon hasn't hesitated to move on from potentially bulky contracts. The Ducks wanted to pay Carlsson around $12 million AAV, yet they waited too long to pull the trigger. Now? They have a $18 million AAV elephant in the room staring them in the face. Boy, that couldn't be Kelly McCrimmon right now, eh? What a smart man.
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