Devante Smith-Pelly Remains Unsigned by Anaheim Ducks
Today has been a more exceedingly busy news day than you would usually see in early September.
Saku Koivu retired from the NHL after playing 13 seasons with the Montreal Canadiens, captaining ten of those seasons and along the way battling and defeating cancer and then playing 5 seasons with the Anaheim Ducks before retiring today. Just a couple hours after that announcement, head coach Bruce Boudreau‘s contract was extended through the 2016-2017 season.
More from Ducks News
- Who could the Anaheim Ducks consider presenting offer sheets to?
- Is Pierre-Luc Dubois on the cards for the rebuilding Anaheim Ducks?
- Making the case for the Anaheim Ducks to trade with the Edmonton Oilers
- Anaheim Ducks might benefit tremendously by trading John Gibson
- How close are the Anaheim Ducks to becoming contenders again?
With all the news released today, I thought I would switch gears briefly and discuss something that is still on the minds of Ducks fans and is something that they want to be resolved sooner rather than later. That would be the Ducks re-signing current restricted free agent Devante Smith-Pelly.
It’s not the same contract saga that we saw with P.K Subban earlier in the summer and it’s not a signing that will completely ensure the Ducks success. But it has got to be on some people’s minds that Smith-Pelly is still a restricted free agent with training camp starting in just over a week.
As I have documented a couple times on this site, Smith-Pelly’s career is appearing to be trending upwards with the way he performed in last years playoffs and that he may be developing into the big, physical and dominating power forward the Ducks hoped to see when they drafted him in the second round of the 2010 NHL Entry Draft.
“I think you see that scary word of potential,” Bruce Boudreau said about Smith-Pelly in a press conference back in Smith-Pelly’s rookie season in March of 2012. “Hes a young man with an adult body, he’s a big physical power forward in the making.”
Aside from the ascendance he took in last years playoffs where he scored five goals in twelve games, prior to that, Smith-Pelly hasn’t really showed the Ducks too much in the NHL. He averaged 0.53 points per game last season when in the NHL (10 PTS in 19 GP) which isn’t nothing, but it’s not the type of production that would immediately spark contract discussions. And like I said, he’s still a developing player who hasn’t proven to the Ducks yet that he is worthy of a hefty contract.
So, what type of contract does he deserve?
It’s become a common occurrence for young emerging players in the NHL to sign what is known as a “bridge contract.” A small contract, no more than two years that would give the team a sample size of what is to come of that player in the future so they can then figure out if they want said player to sign a long-term deal.
The Ducks signed Jakob Silfverberg to a bridge contract this offseason when they signed him for one year and $850,000.
Cap space is not an issue in the slightest for the Ducks. They currently have $10.1M in cap space to sign players and I don’t think Smith-Pelly is worth even $900,000. Leaving the rest of the bridge contract discussion to how many years that the Ducks should sign Smith-Pelly?
Smith-Pelly is only 22 years old. So I would say that with a lot of room to develop, he should probably sign for two years, leaving him room to improve in the second year of this hypothetical contract, if he still doesn’t show the Ducks he is ready for a permanent position on a roster in the NHL after one year.
The Orange County Register reported that on August 15th, the two sides had been negotiating periodically over the summer and that a contract doesn’t yet appear to be imminent. That was around a month ago and with training camp looming, I would have to assume that talks between the two sides have heated up simply because the season is approaching and most athletes always want to finish negotiating a contract before their season gets underway.
“You know not only do you want to just stay up there but you want to have an impact,” Smith-Pelly said to Nathan Epstein, who interviewed him while he was with Norfolk last season. Smith-Pelly went on to say, “That’s obviously the end goal is to be a regular and have an impact.”
It is certainly what Smith-Pelly would do last postseason as he provided a major impact on the team, leading them in goals, scoring more than Perry and more than Getzlaf, in a postseason that saw them nearly take out the eventual Stanley Cup champions.
Smith-Pelly’s little breakout stint has led to some support from people around the game. Former NHL player Anthony Stewart, who formerly played for the Florida Panthers, Atlanta Thrashers and most recently, the Carolina Hurricanes, sent out a couple tweets this summer in support of his hometown Toronto pal, Smith-Pelly.
Stewart joined Smith-Pelly at BioSteel Camp in Toronto in late August, and during the event he tweeted out “#freeSchoolboyD” a nickname that Smith-Pelly has earned most likely because of one of his favorite rappers, Schoolboy Q.
— Anthony Stewart (@StuMunrue) August 20, 2014
Three days ago, Stewart again tweeted, “Free School Boy D #Mallards” certainly implying that he wants the Ducks to resign Smith-Pelly based on the “Mallards” hashtag that he used in the tweet.
Smith-Pelly favorited both of the tweets sent out by Stewart. Secretly insinuating that he would like the process of his contract to move along quicker by favoriting the tweets and not retweeting them out to his timeline. It’s crazy some of the stuff you can find by stalking someones twitter account as extensively as I did to Devante Smith-Pelly.
If you read our Favorite Ducks Player Series featuring all of the staff writer’s favorite Ducks players, you’ll notice that I had chosen Smith-Pelly as mine, so myself specifically, I would like to see Smith-Pelly and the Ducks hash out a deal already and ensure Smith-Pelly will be ready to go for training camp next Thursday.
I’m sure a lot of Ducks fans are encouraged by his progress as a young power forward and would love to see him ensured a contract with Ducks and get back on the ice in time for training camp.