Obvious Ryan Suter is going to be a huge impact player for wherever he signs, but is he really worth almost 2 players? Kronwall and Ericsson aren’t exactly slouches. 

Y’know Brad, I generally agree with you (as a center I would)…..but we are talking about a guy who will play 45 percent of a playoff game, and the market is determining his price. I think the right calculus on this is “what does it take” because we aren’t growing a DMan this good anytime soon, and without him we cannot compete for da cup. So pay what you have to, and trust the cap to keep growing( which is plausible given that it almost doubled in this CBA).

Datsyuk ($6.7m), Z ($6.1), Kronwall ($4.75m), and Franzen ($4m) ties up $21.55m or 30.35% of our cap. Stuart at $7m and Filppula at $4m adds $11m bringing us up $32.55m or 45.65%. That’s assuming we don’t add another forward like Parise, Nash or Ryan. Assuming that that player costs about $5m (which is on the low end) will tie up $37.55m on 7 players. 53% of a cap on 32% of our team (assuming we have 22 NHL players) leaves us in a tight position for future years but is doable.

If Suter’s hit goes north of $7m and is longer than 4 years then I’d say thanks but no thanks. Either that or you NEED rookie contracts (like 3-4) to balance out the cap hit. But yeah $7m on a long contract is fine. North of $7.5m means we need a shorter contract. North of $8m means 2 years maximum.

I wouldn’t worry so much about the length (giggity). What with the coming zombie-apocalypse and all. 

I know that these lengthy contracts are the new norm for star players, but I’m more put off by the term. Since he’s almost certainly not going to play like a $7M+ Perfect Human for a decade, why keep him around that long? Reality of the cap era, I guess. 
That said, anything more than the $7M per he’s been offered (rounding up a bit) is too much. I’m sure he’ll get more actual money for the first few years, but it all comes out in the wash. If, as his agent is saying, it’s less about the money and more about a young guy deciding where he wants to live and work for a decade, another few million on top of the 90 he’s already been offered shouldn’t matter.

Fair points, but there’s also something to be said about stars attracting more stars, no? The Wings lost a pretty big jewel from their crown…I think sometimes its about making statements of intent.

While the cost of finding a D man of similar skill is very high D is very team oriented, and teams have shown that a collection of good d men is better than one star and a collection of scrubs. 

When it comes to D spread the wealth.