The Anaheim Ducks announced early Wednesday morning that they have come to terms with Ryan Kesler on a 6 year contract extension worth $41.25 million dollars. The deal locks up Kesler through the 2021-2022 season.
The fact that Kesler was extended should come as no surprise to anyone as he was a key part to the Ducks push for the cup last season that fell just short. His first season in Anaheim was a success and there is no denying the fact that Kesler’s gritty hard nosed style of play is a perfect fit in Anaheim.
The only surprise here is the length of the deal and the money Kesler will be making.
6 years is a long term contract for a player that will be 32 years old when his extension kicks in. Many people feel this was a necessary move to lock up a great center, but others are questioning the move here by Ducks general manager Bob Murray.
So, why is this extension being viewed as a ‘very bad deal’?
Well, Kesler’s style of play could lead to an injury and he has dealt with some lingering injury issues in the past. There is injury concern with every contract but especially for a guy who plays as hard as Kesler and most certainly a raised concern for a guy entering his mid to late 30’s. There is also concern for regression of play as a player ages. Kesler has been around the league for about 11 seasons now, that’s a very long time. His body may begin to wear down and that also raises concern for a contract as hefty as this one. Basically his age, style of play and his age (we get it, he’s entering his mid to late 30’s) are the biggest concerns here.
But here are the reasons why this deal was a necessary one for the Ducks, as well as why it is a deal that will work.
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Bob Murray is not like other GM’s. He takes the future into consideration with every single move and will never go out of his way to overpay a player. Look at the Ducks current financial situation, before the Kesler extension the Ducks were just 1 of 6 NHL teams with less than 3 players making over $5 million a year(only Getzlaf & Perry made north of $5 million a year before the Kesler extension). It’s not like Murray has been throwing money at players over recent years, he has built this team the financially sound way, through the draft and through smart hockey trades, an example would be his robbery of Pittsburgh when he traded Ben Lovejoy for Simon Despres.
Why It Works Financially
The Ducks have over $16 million in cap space for this upcoming season and as of now they are looking at $30-$33 million in cap space next summer. That’s $30-$33 million that can be spent on those young key free agents ( Lindholm, Vatanen, Despres, Rakell, Sekac, Freddie & Gibson) that need new deals next summer when they all hit restricted free agency. The Kesler extension makes things a bit tighter but resigning most of if not all of those players is entirely possible for Murray despite the $6.875 million dollar cap hit that Kesler will present starting next summer.
Looking past next summer, the Ducks now have only $40 million committed to the cap for the ’17-’18 season and beyond that, the Ducks only have 3 players (Getzlaf, Perry & Kesler) signed after the ’17-’18 season. $24 million committed to the cap starting in the ’18-’19 season. The cap is going to continually rise and the Ducks are going to be okay.
Why It Works In Comparison To Other Centers
Anaheim Ducks
People are wondering why the Ducks gave Kesler this type of money. Does everyone not remember when the Buffalo Sabres just gave Ryan O’Reilly $7.5 million a year?? Since O’Reilly came into the league in 2009-2010, he has 246 points. Since ’09-’10 Ryan Kesler has 300 points. So if anyone is going to talk about someone being overpaid, talk about the Buffalo Sabres front office decisions.
Of the centers who played a minimum of 500 minutes during the regular season last year, Kesler was in the top 15 of face-off percentage at 56.31%. Of those players, only 4 had higher point totals than Kesler. I don’t see any regression in Kesler’s game. Not in point production, not at the face-off dot, not in his compete level, Kesler is not slowing down just yet.
Ryan Kesler is probably one of if not the best 2nd line center in the league. He just made Jonathan Toews life a living hell for 7 games and was arguably the Ducks most clutch performer in the playoffs. Would Rickard Rakell have been able to do that same thing as the Ducks second line center?
Why It Works From A Business Standpoint
In the end, the NHL is a business just as any other sport is. You pay people who are the best at what they do to hopefully get the best rewards in return. Sometimes you have to pay a guy a little more than you would like to, but isn’t that better than having to watch that same guy walk away in free agency and beat you in the future?
People are far often too concerned with which player is playing on which team and they fail to see the big picture from a financial and business standpoint. This was a business decision, would Bob Murray have liked to pay Kesler $5.1 million a year? Yes, but that’s not how the NHL is run today financially, teams are overpaying players and as a result it forces even the smartest GM’s like Murray to dish out a lot of dough to players at times.
However, Every time the Ducks needed a goal or needed something to happen last season, Kesler was there. I get that down the road when he is 36 he might not be the same player, but unless I missed something (Hint: I didn’t), did Ryan Kesler show any signs of regressing last season? Did he show signs of an aging and regressing player? No, he played like a badass all season long.
Again, I understand that towards the end of this deal he won’t be nearly the same type of all around productive player, but whose to say that he doesn’t have another 4 or 5 years of strong play left in him?
Why It Will Work Even If It Doesn’t Work
Remember when the Ducks acquired Chris Pronger? He was a beast, a hard nosed defensemen, one of the best in the league. When the Ducks acquired Pronger he was carrying a cap hit of $6.25 million through the ’09-’10 season. He helped the Ducks win a cup and then in the summer of 2009, one year before the expiration of his contract, the Ducks traded him and the Flyers gave him a 7 year $34.55 million dollar contract. Fast forward to the ’11-’12 season where Pronger only played in 13 games and has since hung up the skates due to concussion issues. The Ducks bought in, got rewarded and then got out before they ended up eating a bad contract.
If Kesler starts to decline in 4 years, whose to say the Ducks can’t trade him just like they did with Pronger?
With today’s ‘tank-fest’ type of NHL atmosphere, teams are not only trying to lose games to get a high lottery pick, they are not spending any money on players. Well those teams have to at least get above the salary cap floor in terms of minimum amount of money spent on players and they are willing to take on the back end of a bad contract to get above the cap floor.
Don’t believe me?
Look at what the Arizona Coyotes just did. They tanked for the 3rd overall pick, needed to spend money to get above the salary cap floor so they made a trade with the Flyers and the Coyotes are now taking on the final 2 years of guess who, Chris Prongers contract. The Coyotes are eating a cap hit of $4,941,429 for the next 2 seasons to make sure they stay above the salary cap floor as they continue to tank. They agreed to take on a $9,882,858 million dollar cap hit over the next 2 seasons for a player that will never touch the ice.
Even if the Ducks do have to eat a little salary if they decide to trade Kesler down the road, some tanking team trying to get above the cap floor will take on Kesler’s contract.
The guy who has been on twitter all day claiming ‘oh my goodness that Kesler contract is awful’ is the same guy who has no knowledge of the Ducks financial future situation and he also has no idea how the NHL works as a business today.
The Kesler contract is fine, it’s necessary. As I already mentioned, you have to pay a lot of dough to see a lot of rewards. If the Ducks win a cup with Kesler, nobody will ever speak of this contract again.
All Stats Via War-On-Ice & Salary Cap Information Via General Fanager