This morning, the Oilers announced that they have signed Justin Schultz to a 1-year deal worth $3.675 million. The contract comes in higher than many of us expected, but it looks like the Oilers paid a higher price for a shorter term. Judging from the reaction on Twitter, the Nation is divided on the new deal.
During his press conference, MacT said that the contract “was a good compromise” and that Schultz has “Norris potential” which is part of the reason they landed on a 1-year deal. Throughout the process, I thought Schultz would sign a bridge deal similar to what PK Subban signed 2 years ago – obviously that didn’t happen. During that bridge deal, Subban won a Norris trophy and established himself as one of the best offensive defenceman in the league – can Schultz do the same? Can he even come close?
To me, a 1-year deal says a couple things. Firstly, the Oilers still aren’t sure what they have in Justin Schultz, and probably weren’t comfortable giving out a long term deal. Secondly, it tells me that Justin Schultz has a very good agent that was able to sell the idea that his offensive abilities outweigh his defensive deficiencies. It will be interesting to see how this year plays out for J. Schultz. If he can improve defensively, while maintaining an offensive flair, next year’s negotiations will cost the Oilers a lot more money. Now the question remains, can he do it? We shall see…
WHAT YOU GUYS ARE SAYING
J. Schultz on a 1-year deal – what do you guys think?
PAY ME MACT I ALSO HAVE NORRIS POTENTIAL!
NO WAY he’s worth this kind of money. He’s nothing like Subban, not even close. This is Jack Johnson 2.0, decent offensive skills (not elite) and terrible prepositionally.
MacT has been good this summer, I think he was taken to the cleaners on this one. I think there’s no question that Jultz & Co. won this deal.
That’s not a very Ari Gold thing to say.
Any real Ari Gold comments would be removed, Bag. Get real.
Lloyd!!!!!
No good prepositionally Lol. He always says through when he should say around.
Schultz has a very high ceiling. During the lockout his AHL numbers were unreal, this guy can move the puck, simple as that. Thing I like most about him was during the last game last season he needed one goal for a million dollar bonus (top ten dman in goals) but he spent the whole PP game trying to set up Ryan Smyth.
He will get tougher and learn to defend better, he has the size. D-men take time to round out their game. This one year deal will make him a better player as all the onus is now on him.
Fair deal, now lets drop the dam puck.
190lbs at age 24 and not one ounce of agression. I would beg to differ that he will get tougher and that he has the size. He may learn to actually play defense but it seems wrong that the oil are paying him 3.6 plus to learn on the job.
D-men don’t peak at age 24. More like 28ish.
He also has only played 122 NHL games. I think a level of toughness comes from confidence and experience.
He did jump the bench once in college to get at someone (if I recall correctly… anyone else hear of this?) so that would also suggest there is some toughness in him somewhere…
Where are you getting that he gave up $1 million in bonuses by not getting a 12th goal last season? A quick look on cap geek says that a defenseman only needs 10 goals to reach the performance bonus and the maximum that the bonus could be is $212,500. He was 2 goals short of being in the top 10 for defensemen and the bonus for that is only $60,000. This notion of him giving up some huge amount of money to help Smyth out is entirely untrue and you Oiler fans will make anything up to feel better about how overrated (and now overpaid) this guy is.
http://www.capgeek.com/faq/how-do-entry-level-contracts-work
MacT is brilliant. He has Petry and J Shultz on 1 year deals. basically it becomes a show me what you can achieve scenario and whoever steps up gets paid. If both step up MacT will be happy to scratch a couple of cheques for monopoly money kind of deals. Its not like Katz and his 60+ storey buildings are hurting for scratch.It gives MacT a monster option also at the trade deadline. Especially if both are playing up to potential and the team is out of the race. Huge return.
MacT is no dumbass and these 2 deals show me that MacT is not going to hand out anymore long term deals based on pedigree. Yakupov better step up if he wants to get paid like Hall RNH and Ebs. If not Larionov can whine all he likes Yak will get paid a whole lot less.
Love the deal. The term is perfect. The time is now for JS to step up to the next level. I hope he does.
I used NHL.com and Capgeek to record the top defenseman down to 33pts (Schultz level) along with their salaries, so everyone can see.
Name Pts Salary (M)
Erik Karlsson 74 6.500
Duncan Keith 61 5.538
Shea Weber 56 7.857
Victor Hedman 55 4.000
P.K Subban 53 9.000
Keith Yandle 53 5.250
Alex Pietrangelo 51 6.500
James Wisniewski 51 5.500
Niklas Kronwall 49 4.750
Brent Burns 48 5.760
Mark Giordano 47 4.020
Matt Niskanen 46 5.750
Kevin Shattenkirk 45 4.250
Oliver Ek-Larsson 44 5.500
Andrej Sekera 44 2.750
Mark Streit 44 5.250
Ryan McDonagh 43 4.700
Ryan Suter 43 7.538
Andrei Markov 43 5.750
Marek Zidlicky 42 4.000
Alex Goligoski 42 4.600
Brent Seabrook 41 5.800
Zdeno Chara 40 6.916
Torey Krug 40 TBD
Roman Josi 40 4.000
Erik Johnson 39 3.750
Tyson Barrie 38 TBD
Mike Green 38 6.083
John Carlson 37 3.966
Drew Doughty 37 7.000
Brian Campbell 37 7.142
Jay Bouwmeester 37 5.400
Dan Boyle 36 4.500
Cam Fowler 36 4.000
Kimmo Timonen 35 3.500
Jason Demers 34 3.400
Slava Voynov 34 4.166
Justin Schultz 33 3.675
Jason Garrison 33 4.600
Christian Ehrhoff 33 4.000
Jack Johnson 33 4.357
Cody Franson 33 3.300
Holy christ, how do i make tables in this damn thing? That’s ugly. *searches* The only way i’ve found to space things out is using either the & emsp; character or the & nbsp;. Allow us to make tables damn it!
This tape would be much more useful if you narrowed it down to RFA’s only. How do the comparables look then?
RFA’s don’t have the same rights as UFA’s and shouldn’t be paid like them. MACT overpaid by about 1M. Keeps the relationship with Schultz but sets a dangerous precedent.
Feel free to filter the list. I’m keeping it as is because i’m doing a direct $$ –> Pts comparison.
There are lots of factors like RFA/UFA and when the contract was signed, its term and with which team.
Thanks for the contribution.
I think most understand that point totals don’t tell the whole story, especially for defence men. Also is a player was an UFA when the contract was signed impacts the list.
just FYI, going through the list i started to bold all the players that signed their contracts as RFA’s, and as far as i went, it was 100% of them.
I did not complete the list and deleted all the bold tags because it really didn’t give us any valuable information.
There are a number of variables that account for the $ value a team signs a player for, but really those variables aren’t what i’m trying to illustrate anyway. I’m more just providing a quick graphic to show where justin fits in with points (Because he’s an offensive defenseman) and $.
Selective stats. Do the same analysis on the defensive side (these ARE defenseman). Corsi, plus minus, blocked shots, hits. You decide which to analyse. Or combine them. If the other team scores more goals, they win. 10-9 or 1-0 same diff.
I dont have any fancy webpages to bring all those things together and it was quite a bit of back and forth to combine just salary and points.
Feel free to post the same thing w/ Corsi, plus minus, blocked shots, hits etc.
Norris potential. Well there is the quote for 2013.
Reminds me of the Reasoner is just like Joe Sakic. Oh dear.
Some of things that comes from Craig’s mouth make me shake my head.
I hope Justin can be the next Mike Green.
He can be the next Mike Green…if we trade for him and send Schultz in return. Kidding.
Win games…and a lot of them…and then all of a sudden players will take a bit less than market value to stick around so that they can win. We have become the NHL team that “won’t be beat on price!”
“Bring your Blackhawks deal down to our dealership and we will beat that offer by 10%!” At MacT Emporium nobody beats our price….NOOOOObody!”
Sigh…
I’m going to choose the “Horcoff should be on the Olympic team because he is the best 3 on 5 man in the game!” That is my favourite, Mac T what are you talking about moment.
Is Mac T thinking maybe the game is still played like how he was in the NHL? I could see Schultz getting Norris then.
Are the Oilers up against a cap ? Are we paying his salary ? Why do we care?
I’m just happy the oilers arnt locked in long term on Jultz. But I’m scared at how much MacT likes him. He almost sounds delusional with some of the things he says about Jultz
I’m thinking based on a 1 year, high $$ contract Mac’T’s fondness for Jultz is similar to that of your first date with someone being your high school graduation party. You like them enough to invite them to an important occasion, willing to drop a few buck on a corsage, some drinks, a limo and other sundry grad items. But your not sure of they’re worthy of a long term commitment. The deal works for me IMHO.
Good deal. he’s RFA by the end and if he can show he’s worth more money, he’ll get more money.
33 pts in a defenseman is worth the 3.675M he got this year.
MacT. seems unsure on Schultz with only a one year contract . Nice to see him signed at least for upcoming season . Now maybe MacT. can concentrate on another center , and maybe a top 1-2 defenseman for upcoming season .
From the press conference, MacT made it seem like they will be going into camp with this group at C. I guess we’ll just take that for what it’s worth.
Well optimism to get out of basement will be filled with scepticism . Being weak again at center and we’ll be a periphery team once again barring a miracle out of Draisaitl . MacT. is the naïve one if he feels the current group is good enough to press for playoffs . He is operating no better than Tams did in filling glaring weaknesses on squad . I’m one not impressed by MacT. and his dealings to date . Strength down the middle we do not have and bad results are inevitable .
I agree with parts of what you said, but I completely disagree that MacT isn’t doing a better job than Tambellini. MacT has been acquiring actual NHL players. The thing at centre is strange though. The Oilers need to stop relying on 18 year olds at important positions.
I feel like it’s a combination of relying on 18 year olds at important positions and not being able to bring in a quality centerman (not for lack of trying). MacT is only able to do so much at one time to bring the Oil roster back from the disaster that Tambellini created. With the position they are now in I think MacT will see what their current crop of centermen can do and then try again to address the likely issue at some point during the season.
With regards to Schultz: I like the one year deal, see if he can improve his defensive play (his offensive play will no doubt improve along with the rest of the Oilers after the season that was 2014). If it improves he is still an RFA next summer and MacT has some leverage, if it doesn’t well then one year is no risk. Money could have been less but with cap room, not the end of the world.
I
~ Wow, a Baggedmilk article about hockey and not crayons. Look Steve!!! ~
I was looking for a place to talk about crayons, but I couldn’t find the right spot.
Such an overpay. Opening the purse strings on a one year deal? The Oilers caved man. Caved badly.
On what? A potential “Norris” trophy winner? based on what exactly? MacT’s comments? Come on people.
So they paid him this one year deal like a UFA. I sit back and scratch my head why? He is not a UFA.
I get for 12 trashes? You mean you think I’m wrong? Is Oilers Management on this site down voting me? Now up to 12, I’m sure it’s Oilers Management now
COME ON!! DO YOUR WORST!!
May very well be an overpay, but in comparing to other salaries around the league and using PK’s new contract as measuring sticks, its not outrageous. Remember salary comparisons are difficult because the bar is constantly moving (usually upwards) with changes in the salary cap and more recent comparables.
JS camp probably wanted a one year deal to see what happens if he plays on a team with better coaching, better systems, better goaltending, better D partners and better F’s.
If he can just maintain the offence and start reeling in the defensive numbers, a 5X$5M or even 5X$6M might be reasonable, especially with rising cap. If he finds his offence of 2012-13 again and reels in the defensive numbers, then his number will go up even further – which could upset the salary hierarchy of the team.
I can’t even…
Disagree with a thing you say. You win this time voice of sound reasoning.
Not a bad deal, would’ve liked 3 instead of 3.675
Its a million for every clapper he gets on net this year.
I looked at Top dmen for GA.
#4 Martinez 1.43
#6 Greene 1.50
#8 Mitchell 1.61
#9 Muzzin 1.63
#10 0Voynov 1.66
30 min of lAk bottom 2 pairs is .775/gm
J. Schultz 3.08 EVGA/60
15 minutes of schultz in a D PR is .770G/gm
the same G /gm in half the time.
J. schultz is one of the 10 worst Defensive Dmen in the game!
That’s more indicative of the team.
The Oilers didn’t have a single defenseman with +1 or better this year.
In the same sentence as Subban? Stop it. Just stop it. You know those terrible caterwauling singers on the Idol shows that think they can sing because their moms and cousins told them so? Lots of Schultz moms and cousins here at ON. Terrible overpayment.
Wish Mac T had a better poker face then saying Norris Trophy Potential. Better to overpay him 1 year, especially if he ends up playing 3rd pairing minutes and puts up lacklaster point totals with lots of powerplay time.
Remember Subban pushed up pricing for d by signing at $9mil x forever.
“Norris potential”???
This is the Hemsky press release 2.0 in 2013 when MacT said Ales was:
” “Absolutely, he’s off the market” and “I can see another deal” for Ales. He’s going to have a significant role etc etc.. . .and then hit the phones and started shopping him around the league.
This contract may be your trade for the #2C.
I also hope its the end of the soft wrister from the point during our PP . . .drives me nuts.
Better than giving him the Eberle/RNH/Hall type deal he was asking for.
2014, oopsie
One year this time, one year next time. Cap will be up and he will get paid what he is worth by the time 2016 rolls by.
I guess I don’t see the downside unless MacT was interested in adding another player to the roster.
If Schultz deserves a bigger contract next year, he’ll get it. If he doesn’t, I don’t think the Oilers would want to keep him.
The downside, from what I see, is that he’s on pace to earn Subban money, particularly with the terrible MacT quotes of the recent past. If he has a breakout season, he’ll ask for more than Hall’s contract (ridiculous). If he has a terrible season, he’ll already get an inflated amount because of this overpay. He should’ve been signed for $2.8-3.2 million max.
This was poor planning on MacT’s part. This will turn into a problem as far as ‘asset management’ goes.
I’m fine with it.
Fasten your seatbelts boys and girls, September is just around the corner.
I know one team who is pissed with this deal and that is the Bruins. They are still negotiating with Krug and are up against the cap big time. As for Shultz .. if he can use the slapper a lot more ala subban.. and I have seen him take it from time to time he will put up way more points. On the defensive side of things put him with someone reliable to help him and he will be fine. Overall very happy with this deal and glad that we never signed him to 6×7 years.
This contract makes the Clarkson contract …..still the dumbest one in the last 20 years ..atto go TORONTO!!!!!!!
This made me laugh out loud. Well done, sir!
Not even close.
See Yashin, DiPietro, Horcoff….
I’m just gonna become an agent. They’re the real winners here.
:$$$$$$