Two More Years Of Corey Potter

A story that broke on Twitter late yesterday has now officially been confirmed by the Edmonton Oilers: defenseman Corey Potter has signed a contract extension for two more seasons.

As per the Oilers official site, Potter’s contract extension will see him earn $750,000 next season and $800,000 the year after, for an average annual cap hit of $775,000. While those dollar figures represent a non-trivial raise from the $525,000 Potter will earn for his work this season, they still represent pretty marginal payment for even a bottom-pairing NHL defenseman and will put Potter’s salary below that of most of the highly-touted defense prospects in the Oilers’ system.

Given that Corey Potter has five years of being a minor-leaguer under his belt as opposed to just 27 games of being an NHL’er in Edmonton, was it wise to sign him to a two-year, one-way contract? Absolutely it was.

This is an exceedingly low-risk contract. Potter will earn less money over the whole of it than Cam Barker was given to come play in Edmonton in 2011-12. In the absolute worst-case scenario, where Potter turns out to be an AHL’er riding a hot streak, the Oilers can send him down to the minors for both years and still waste less money in doing so than a single season of Gilbert Brule in the AHL would burn through.

That’s under the worst-case scenario. There are a range of other scenarios, ranging from a long-term spot as seventh defenseman to regular top-four work, and in all of them Potter is either reasonably compensated or significantly underpaid.

Depending on perspective, Potter has been anything from Edmonton’s third-best defenseman this year to a number five/six guy. Only Tom Gilbert and Ladislav Smid have received more ice-time per game than Potter. Only Gilbert has put up more points than Potter’s 14, as Renney has turned to the long-time journeyman to be his top power play defenseman. On a blue line full of problems – from injury to ineffectiveness to disciplinary issues, Potter has been the rare pleasant surprise.

Personally, I’ve long regarded the gap between being a high-end AHL defenseman and a third-pairing guy in the NHL as being rather small. Potter has been the former for a long time, doing it all at the minor league level: putting up offense, running up garish plus/minus totals, and slowly refining his play to a more disciplined level. Given that long track record, I’m willing to believe that his play this season is more than a fluke, that he’s legitimately capable of being an average to above-average third-pairing NHL’er.

Certainly, Potter has distinguished himself from the crowd. He’s more polished defensively than virtually any of the young defensemen fighting for a spot, and he can move the puck out of his own end in a way that Andy Sutton and Theo Peckham can only dream of. He’s steady, he’s multi-faceted, and in a third-pairing role it makes a lot more sense to pay a pittance for a capable jack of all trades than to spend big money on a reclamation project like Barker or a suspension waiting to happen like Sutton.

This was a no-brainer for the Oilers. Nevertheless, after watching players like Jan Hejda slip through the cracks in the past, it’s still something of a relief to see it done. Additionally, after watching the Oilers spend big on guys like Barker, Sutton, Foster, Vandermeer, it’s nice to see a third-pairing guy get paid the way a third-pairing guy should.