Who will blink first, as the contract extension market has come to a standstill?
Sportsnet: Elliotte Friedman and Kyle Bukauskas on the 32 Thoughts: The Podcast – The Last Dance in LA episode, on Jason Robertson and Kyle Connor‘s contract situation with the Dallas Stars and Winnipeg Jets, respectively.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Bukauskas: “Someone we haven’t talked as much about, and you know, we probably should just given he’s in a similar situation as a (Kirill) Kaprizov, as a (Connor) McDavid, that Jack Eichel, you name it, but that’s Kyle Connor of the Winnipeg Jets. What’s going on there?
Friedman: “Well, I think that he wants to stay in, and I think they want to keep him well. First of all, going to the you were, you were talking about Jim Nill, right?
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Bukauskas: “I just thought when he spoke to the local media in Dallas this week and asked about Jason Robertson situation. Now, his is different, of course, I think they still got two more years of control. He’s not going into UFA territory just yet. I just thought it was really quite something that he comes out and says the negotiating market right now with players in the league has come to a standstill, and it’s a standstill to with Jason Robertson.
And that triggered my mind to what you had talked about not too long ago, with the whole evolving landscape of the salary cap jumping leaps and bounds over the next little while, that no player wants to be the one that ends up missing the boat in terms of where their number could be because they took a deal too early in the proceedings.
So it’s not only happening in the UFA world. It’s happening in the RFA world, in the case of Jason Robertson and teams are having to deal with players all around, do new contracts, seeing, I just want to wait and get a sense of how this landscape is all going to look over the next little bit and how much it changes.
Friedman: “First of all, Jim Nill, he doesn’t let his guard down too often, but when he does, he’s really good, like that whole conversation tonight, or that whole quote was really insightful. And so Jim, if you’re listening to this pod, and I know you’re probably not, but if you’re listening to this pod, you should let your guard down more often, because that was great stuff.
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I was talking with a couple people about this yesterday, after Nill said it, and he was talking about Kaprizov and he was talking, we’re talking about McDavid, and eventually we got around to Connor too. So Kaprizov when he gets done, whenever that is, he’s going to be the highest-paid winger in the league.
But last year, there were two deals that set a new bar. It used to be (Artemi) Panarin $11.64 (million), then (Mikko) Rantanen signed for 12 (million), and Marner signed for 12 (million). And this person said to me, Rantanen no-tax state. Marner no-tax state. Cap going up. Don’t you think that if Kyle Connor signs before Kaprizov, he’s going to be the highest-paid winger in the league?
And I was thinking about that. I was thinking, you know what, you’re probably right. And even if Kaprizov ends up signing first, Connor is probably going to be the second highest-paid winger in the league. So when we were talking about this, and I do think the Jets want to get that done, and I do think that he wants to stay. I think that’s his preference.
But, you know, we were kind of talking about, boy, that’s and you look at it, you know, who are the who are the Jets, highest paid guys? Well, theyir highest paid players are (Mark) Scheifele and (Connor) Hellebuyck at $8.5 (million), and Hellebuyck was the MVP of the league last year. And you know, he, this guy, was just saying to me, it’s amazing, and this is an Exec, he said, it’s amazing how quick it’s changing for all of us.
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You know, he said that, we all knew it. We all saw the numbers last year, the agreement that the league reached with the players over the cap the next three years. But it always seemed like it was down the road, down the road, down the road.
Now, it’s hitting everybody smack dab in the face, and we were just kind of saying how, you know, this is the guy, the Jets signed two great deals, Scheifele and Hellebuyck. Like, those guys are going to be worth every penny Winnipeg is paying for them. Like we said, Hellebuyck with the MVP of the league last year, and now a couple years later, Kyle Connor is just going to go, whoosh right past.
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