It’s the summer of sticker shock.

With the NHL’s salary cap set to skyrocket over the next three years and beyond, we’ll be seeing lots of contracts handed out in the coming week that may surprise you.

But the sticker shock around Trent Frederic’s eight-year contract extension isn’t so much about the money, as an annual cap hit of $3.85-million is something that will age well if Frederic can return to the form he had with the Bruins before an ankle injury hampered him. It’s about the term.

Eight years is a long time to sign a player like Frederic, who projects as a bottom-six, third-line forward. While he will likely show that he can slide up and down the lineup playing with the likes of Connor McDavid or Leon Draisaitl, a definite benefit, longer-term deals for power forward-type players have rarely aged well.

Frederic has things playing to his benefit as a player: he’s relatively young at 27-years-old, doesn’t have a ton of tread on his tires with 338 NHL games and 127 AHL games, and has scored at a great clip.

Looking at 220 NHL forwards with over 2500 minutes at five-on-five over the last three years, he’s scored 0.87 goals per hour and 1.77 points per hour — rates that rank 69th and 117th. His 6.82 shots on goal per hour rank 105th, his 0.82 individual expected goals per hour rank 69th, while his 10.53 hits per hour rank 14th.

Comparing that to 22 Oilers forwards with over 400 minutes of ice-time over the last three years, his goals per hour rate ranks ninth, his points per hour rank sixth, his shots on goal per hour rank ninth, his individual expected goals per hour rank ninth, and his hits per hour fifth.

All the while, Frederic’s underlying numbers have been strong, too, with a 55.5 percent goal share, and strong rates of suppressing opposing teams’ expected goals and high-danger scoring chances.

According to Hockey Viz, Frederic has greatly outplayed his spot as a third-liner with the Bruins,  as his impacts have been that of a low-end first-liner, or a high-end second-liner.

It paints a picture of somebody who should fit in well with what the Oilers are doing, but the general reaction continues to stress the term on his deal — but the team has done a good job of averting significant risk in this contract.

PuckPedia broke the details of Frederic’s contract Friday, highlighting in the deal the first four years carry a full no movement clause, years five and six have a 10-team trade list and years seven and eight have a 20 team trade list. So by the time Frederic turns 31, options will open up for the Oilers to move him by way of trade.

And in the case of a worst-case scenario where the Oilers need to explore a buyout option, the team wouldn’t suffer any major penalties. That, once again, comes by the way of the contract structure.

For the sake of the argument, let’s say that after four years, the Oilers decide to go that route. Buying out the final four years of Frederic’s deal would save the team anywhere from $1.33-million to $1.83-million over the first four years of the buyout, while the team would take a $817,000 negative cap hit. Those numbers remain virtually the same no matter what year of the contract is bought out.

This is some tidy work by the Oilers.

Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach.laing@bettercollective.com.