What? If it was $5.5m, it would be a $55m deal. Instead it's $40m and that's a good deal. I'm actually sort of surprised Gillis didn't go for that.

The term doesn't matter. I'm guessing it's heavily front-loaded and only $1-2m in the last two or three years. You can easily get rid of that to a salary floor team as he gets old.

Great deal for Buffalo.

TSNBobMcKenzie


Year 1: $8M signing bonus, $2M salary; Year 2: $5M SB, $3M sal. That's $18M in 1st 2 yrs, or $15M before puck drops on 12-13 season. #tsn

Year 3: $4M; Year 4: $4M, Year 5: $4M; Year 6: $4M; Year 7: $3M; Year 8; $1M; Year 9: $1M, Year 10: $1M. Modified NTC. Cap hit=$4M/yr. #tsn half a minute ago via web

Weird, I got this via twitter

Edit: ahhh OK that makes more sense.

maybe he has a bigger fish to catch :troll:

I'm surprised Gillis didn't go for this. Isn't Ehrhoff 28? 10 years isn't so bad either. 4 million cap hit.

There must be something that Gillis doesn't see right with Ehrhoff or his willingness to sign his Dman beyond certain age.

Ehrhoff isn't worth locking down for 10 years. Yes offensively he's top end but for an all-around defenseman he's not worth it.

Now Edler on the other hand, if he goes beast mode in the next season or two to be like mini-Lidstrom as some people have him panned out to be, he'd be worth considering a long term deal like that.

lol i guess ehrhoff feels more comfortable playing infront of miller than luongo

Dude cashed in bigtime
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i expect to see these heavy front load contracts go away with the new CBA. it seems like every year theres a new loop hole GM/agents jump thru whether its these 10 year front load contracts, or now more recently massive signing bonuses to avoid huge escrow

Can someone explain what the point of splitting his paycheck into salary & signing bonus is?

He's not worth 10 years at $5.5m but at $4m a year, that's a great deal for a 50 point defenseman. Especially if the cap continues to rise, $4m for Ehrhoff might be a steal in 2-3 years time when average salary rises.

It's not REALLY a 10 year deal. It's like a 6-7 year deal with 2-3 years tacked on to make it cap friendly.

maybe i should clarify: speculation was ehrhoff was seeking $5.5 cap hit with the canucks. that would have been combined with a long term deal which would handcuff the canucks (especially with edler's contract being done soon). i'm not saying ehrhoff was seeking a 10 yr deal with us per say, but it would have been something close to that i would guess. even if this $40mil/10 year deal was signed with us, i'd have mixed feelings about it. i do admit that it is a very trade friendly type of contract though.

also, i'm never the person around here that whines about how much someone gets paid in one year. i always talk about cap hit, not year to year salary.

Now 'Hoff has to play the Bruins 6 times a year for the next 10 years.

During the last CBA, players had to take a 25% salary pay cut. Bonuses were not affected, I think. With the current CBA expiring at the end of next season, having a low salary and high signing bonus for the 2012-13 season allows players to collect their $$ even if salaries are rolled back again. Having the signing bonus for this upcoming season just makes it slightly less blatantly obvious that this is what they are trying to do ($8M signing bonus followed by $5M signing bonus the year after?? wtf... Bettman's gota be fuming right now). Bieksa's signing bonuses are spread out over the entire term of the contract to make it seem less obvious, but still that's the intent.

Luongo's contract is slightly different as I recall, with his salary shooting up something considerably for the 2012-13 season anticipating a possibly salary roll back

It's odd that they left this signing bonus loophole open, as cap hit is based on bonuses+salary so obviously PA and NHL are both aware of what could have happened. But then again they left heavy heavy front loaded contracts open as well until Bettman decided it was a crock.

Couldn't care less about the actual money and I'm sure Aquaman doesn't either. It's the cap hit that matters and $4m cap hit for Ehrhoff is amazing.

Other D-men that make $4m cap hit?

Tom Gilbert
Ryan Whitney
Joni Pitkanen
Andrej Meszaros
Marek Zidlicky
Zbynek Michalek

Oh, check out the guys that make more than Hoff that are hilarious...

Ron Hainsey
Mike Komisarek
Michael Rozsival

Any guesses on where you guys think Brad Richards will be going?

new york or florida, toronto is the worst sports city in north america to play in. Ask anyone

I say NYR for Richards. He loves the city, likes the coach and he'll be a good fit there.

you forgot he will be playing with gaborik and callahan

I see Richards signing with NYR as well

Jovo back as a canuck?

^We need someone to play with Kesler.

yeah, i think a linemate for kesler should be our highest priority.

are we planning on re-signing Higgins?

^ I remember someone on twitter that he's most likely gonna test the FA market. We def need a winger for Kes to play with. Man, it's gonna be a busy day tmr. Haha
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