The Sutton Contract
by Tyler Dellow • June 1, 2012 • Hockey • 10 Comments
When the Oilers renewed Andy Sutton for a year, I made what I thought was a pretty compelling argument that they’d overpaid him by at least $750K. I also indicated that I’d follow up on this as the summer went along. With the season now complete, I can draw up the list of comparable guys (UFA, at least 40 GP, between 14-17 minutes a night) to follow as the free agent signing season progresses. It is as follows:
Of note: the Minnesota Wild re-upped Clayton Stoner immediately after the season ended. Stoner, who is 27, was to be a UFA. He’s played more games and had more TOI than Sutton over the past two years. He’s younger. He got $1.05MM for two years. That is considerably…less than Sutton got.
Also of note: the Oilers and Ryan Smyth appear to be locked in some sort of battle over how much he should get paid next year. It’s apparent to me that I rate Smyth a little more than the average Oilers fan at this stage of his career but whether it’s Smyth or someone else, that $750K burned on Sutton could have been used to get a top nine guy who can play tough minutes.
Oh well. Coaching was the problem anyway.
Maybe he is good in the locker room with the kids , from what I’ve heard
And seen on oil change he is . Smyth on the other hand does not seem
To be so good with them
Well fuck me gently with a chainsaw, let’s just put Smyth’s head on a pike outside of Rexall and bring back other “good in the room guys” Like Jason Strudwick.
Ever notice it’s the really fucking awful guys who are “good in the room”? Everyone talks about how good Khabi is. Maybe it’s because that’s now the only skill they bring and they better damn well be nice in the room to keep getting paid.
Meanwhile, we’ll continue to ice a team full of shit hockey players who are nice in the room, which will allow the Oilers to pick first for another half dozen years.
Of the varied problems that the Oilers have, cap space is most certainly not one of them. Even going forward, you guys have veritable continents of room to maneuver.
A real good way to maintain cap space not being a problem in the next couple years as the ELC’s expire and the Oilers presumably move to “contention” is to routinely toss around extra amounts of money and fuck up your entire salary structure, I hear.
Seriously, part of the problem of giving guys like Sutton 500K or 1M too much money or 1 year or 2 years too many is that it all adds up to inhibit your ability to negotiate favorable deals with next year’s players. “If Sutton is our #7, and I’m becoming a somewhat successful defenseman on this team, shouldn’t I get more years and/or money?” And then you run into issues of “NO YOU’RE SELFISH WE NEED TO TRADE YOU YOU’RE BAD IN THE ROOM”. You can’t play hardball with guys like Smyth (twice) over $500K, when you’re routinely throwing $500K at other guys who are less deserving.
How is that not obvious? It’s not even an issue of cap space right now, it’s an issue of future cap space and doing the right thing, so that you aren’t trading Smyth’s so you can keep Sutton’s.
Also it really gives the fanbase a ton of confidence when you’re fucking up minor deals like this that should be easy to negotiate. When Eberle needs a new deal next summer I’ll just cover my eyes and ears and someone can let me know the damage.
I definitely agree every team needs players that are better than those that they have. However player management was again an issue with the Oilers. Who was at fault is the question. Are they saying it was Renney who played Lander or Khabbibulin, etc.?
It seems hard to believe that Lowe could watch a team faltering like the Flames and see it as a triumph of execution, a feather in Krueger’s cap. However as has been said he did sit Jones, so unless Ryan was injured he has that going for him. Oilerland is a weird, weird place. Guess we’ll find out a little bit more this year. Please.
Here are some of their stats from last season. The rankings in brackets are relative to defenceman who played more than 20 games on their team. It’s a nice broad list of comparables. Sutton should end up somewhere in the middle in terms of compensation.
Andy Sutton
RelQoC: -0.043 (7th of 9)
CorsiRel: 6.0 (1st of 9)
Aaron Rome
RelQoC: -0.392 (6th of
CorsiRel: -8.2 (6th of
Jaroslav Spacek
RelQoC: -0.983 (7th of
CorsiRel: 7.5 (1st of
Bruno Gervais
RelQoC: -0.390 (6th of 9)
CorsiRel: 11.3 (2nd of 9)
Kurtis Foster
RelQoC: -0.596 (8th of
CorsiRel: -2.7 (5th of
Colin White
RelQoC: -0.076 (5th of
CorsiRel: -5.6 (5th of
Aaron Johnson
RelQoC: 0.075 (7th of 9)
CorsiRel: -1.9 (5th of 9)
Cory Sarich
RelQoC: -0.507 (5th of
CorsiRel: 12.0 (2nd of
Mark Eaton
RelQoC: -0.212 (7th of 7)
CorsiRel: -14.5 (7th of 7)
Sheldon Brookbank
RelQoC: -0.183 (5th of 6)
CorsiRel: -12.1 (6th of 6)
Well, that looks ridiculous. The smiley faces are 8s.
I just assumed you were really happy.
Our future’s so bright, you’ve gotta wear shades.