Ryan Malone has signed with the Tampa Bay Lightning (additional note to KIMBERLY)?

Question

Here's the TSN article: http://tsn.ca/nhl/story/?id=242037&lid=headline&lpos=topStory_nhl

I know the contract is just frontloaded, so he receives less in the remaining 5 seasons than the $8 million and $7 million he'll receive respectively during the first 2 seasons... but holy cow, Malone is NOT worth $8 million for 1 season. $.7 million less than Crosby? What a joke.

I'm glad the Pens get a 3rd-rounder instead of a 4th-rounder in 2009 from the Lightning. People, especially Pens fans, need to realize that Roberts and Malone weren't going to sign with the Pens, so the Pens made a good deal trading their rights to the Lightning and getting a pick instead of not getting anything and have those two sign elsewhere July 1st anyway.

Answer 1

ALL of you re VASTLY missing the point.

4.5 mil cap hit

4.5 mil cap hit

4.5 MIL CAP HIT!

That's it! Only 4 and a half million against the cap for all the years he's on this team. That's pretty d**n good for  player that wanted over 5 mil. He GOT his 5+ mil, and we got a solid second-line winger for Stamkos for under 5 mil a season.

DON'T call Oren Koules' move a joke (at least not yet) These guy is setting Tampa ON FIRE with these moves. Malone? Roberts? ROLSTON??? All before July 1?

My word, these guy is insane. and I LOVE it!

Answer 2

lmfao. apology accepted i guess!

NOW you can really trust me when i say that i'm a TRUE Ryan Malone fan.. I'm not always right with my predictions, I just always saw Ryan going wherever Greg was or vice versa. haha daddy's boy...

Answer 3

Well wasn't as sure Roberts wouldn't sign. Then again maybe he was sent in the deal to get Tampa Bay to agree. Sounds to me like Tampa Bay is renting him in the contract. Why is half of it in the first 2 years? Why 5 years worth about 15/16 million after that? Just reading that almost got me to think is this so they can dump him after 2 years. Yeah it is overpaying him the first two years, and I think that was his/his agents idea to protect him. Doesn't really bother me though. Sure I'd prefer him in the West, but hey at least now he isn't in a division rival and at least we got something for him.

Add: Vinny thank you for showing my point, although you didn't do it on purpose. Think about it with a rookie contract. Then you unload Malone in about 3 years, about the time you'd need to resign Stamkos. So that's why it is so front loaded.

Answer 4

WOW.  completely and totally overpaid.

I understand the front-loaded contracts... if they want to trade him in a few years, other teams don't have to pay as much (making him easier to trade despite the cap hit), plus it's an incentive for him to sign.  But seriously?  That's so much money for a good, but not great, player.

I really really doubt he will have as many points next year as he did this year.  I like him, but that's totally overpaying and 7 years is much too long to sign someone like that.

I think Tampa will regret this.

Answer 5

Ryan Malone is a good player and will be a good player for years to come -- however, I'd have to agree that he is in fact overpaid.

Penguin fans will have to get used to this kind of thing though, after a successful campaign players always opt to leave for more money and icetime. Let's just hope for their sake that Malkin decides to stay there and doesn't take the "rumoured" crazy high salary that the Russian league is offering him.

Answer 6

3 years too long and about 1-1.5M a year too much...

NHL Team's "Road to Ruin" checklist.

A - Hire ESPN analyst as coach. CHECK.

B - VASTLY overpay for free agents. CHECK.

C - Sign overpaid free agents to long term contracts (optional). CHECK.

Next Years Paychecks:

Malone 7-8

Boyle 6.667

Vinny 6.875

St. Louis 5.25

Kuba 3.0

Good luck re-signing Stamkos in the future.

Answer 7

I knew he'd be the most overpaid :]

Answer 8

I think this is being blown a little out of proportion. You have to remember that he will only make that kind of money for two years, then after that, it's much much less. His cap hit will only be $4.5M, which will be his average salary during those 7 years. $4.5M per year is not that much. Let's look at some other players whose cap number will be $4.5M or more this season:

Michael Nylander ($4.875M)

Kim Johnsson ($4.85M)

Patrice Bergeron ($4.75M)

Saku Koivu ($4.75M)

Alex Semin ($4.6M)

Shane Doan ($4.55M)

Jason Arnott ($4.5M)

Rick DiPietro ($4.5M)

Bill Guerin ($4.5M)

Scott Hannan ($4.5M)

Alex Kovalev ($4.5M)

Eric Staal ($4.5M)

David Legwand ($4.5M)

Martin Erat ($4.5M)

Sure, there's a lot of good players on that list, but no one is a real star player (except Staal). And a lot of those guys are either too old, or injury-riddled, or just overpaid themselves. Especially with the cap going up, a player like Malone has the opportunity to ask for more. I mean, I completely agree, Ryan Malone is getting overpaid, but not to the extent that most of you here seem to think.

And btw, about Brodeur, I've realized how great he is. For the last 3 years I've kept on saying that this is the year Brodeur and the Devils will start to suck. But that has not happened. I understand now that the Devils and Brodeur will never suck, ever, until he retires. So I can pretty much guarantee the Devils will make the playoffs (maybe win the division) and Brodeur will win the Vezina again this year. I've come to terms with that and I accept the fact that he's a great goalie and the Devils are a really good team.

Answer 9

Great to be a Wings fan and know Hollands doing his job.  Lets think about it.  

This Ryan Malone guy is making 1 million dollars more than the best defenseman the NHL has seen in a decade (Nicklas Lidstrom).

1.5 million more than Pavel Datsyuk.

More than Henrik Zetterberg, Johan Franzen, Tomas Holmstrom,  and Chris Osgood COMBINED.