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After setting career highs with 38 goals, 30 assists and 68 points, Tage Thompson signed a seven-year, $50 million extension with Buffalo in the summer of 2022. Before it even kicked in, he topped himself again with 47 goals, 47 assists and 94 points.
Thompson is under contract through 2030 at an annual salary cap hit of $7.15 million, a steal for his production and size. Robert Thomas at $8.15 million with St. Louis and Frank Nazar at $6.6 million with Chicago are on similar team-friendly deals.
They are among players who signed long term before this past summer of high spending, when Leo Carlsson’s offer sheet set off a domino effect of big-money deals. Suddenly this group looks grossly underpaid, perhaps with a tinge of regret, but also generally happy with prioritizing security for themselves and their families.
“It’s tough to kind of gauge where the cap’s going to go and honestly where your career’s going go,” Thompson said. “Do I think there’s guys that wish they would have held out a little bit? And am I one of those guys? Yeah, obviously you would have liked to sign a big ticket and get as much money as humanly possible. But at the end of the day, you’re still talking about (a lot of money).”
Thompson’s father, Brent, bounced around during his career on a series of one- and two-year contracts that moved the family around North America. That played into his decision to choose stability over the risk of something shorter.
“When you sign it, too, there’s a big weight off your shoulders,” Thompson said. “There’s so many things that go on inside your head. I think when you sign one of those long-term deals, it just kind of frees you up to just focus on what you can do to just help the team win and not have to worry about that next contract.”
Thomas signed a few weeks before Thompson in 2022 and joked that he wished he could predict the future.
“If anybody could predict the future, then I don’t think there will be guys signing eight-year deals,” Boston captain David Pastrnak quipped. “But it’s timing. It’s a little bit of luck.”
Nazar signed for $46.13 million a little over a year ago, knowing the cap was going up and that he could have waited and made a little more. He, too, set career highs with 15 goals, 26 assists and 41 points.
“Obviously, no matter what, you’re going to think about it,” Nazar said. “If anything, it’s a good thing. Leave some money on the table for other guys, and hopefully we can bring in some guys and do something really special.”
That’s how Montreal’s Cole Caufield views his situation in the middle of his eight-year, $62.8 million contract. Having forwards Caufield, Nick Suzuki and Juraj Slafkovsky all making less than $8 million annually through 2030 and No. 1 defenseman Lane Hutson at $8.85 million through ’31 is a big reason the Canadiens could be good for a long, long time.
“Obviously, money’s money, and we get paid a lot of it to do what we do,” Caufield said. “Right now it’s probably the biggest five, six years of our careers, and based on what we’ve built, I think what’s more important is winning.”
Coming off winning the Stanley Cup with Carolina, Jaccob Slavin may be the best value in the league at an average annual cap hit of under $6.4 million through 2032-33. Not an offensive defenseman like Colorado’s Cale Makar, whose $163.2 million contract is the richest in league history, Slavin joked that “defense doesn’t pay” and isn’t worried that he should have held out for a few more bucks.
“I don’t kick myself for signing when I did,” Slavin said. “I wanted to be in Raleigh. I didn’t want to be anywhere else.”
Jack Eichel, who won the Cup with Vegas in 2023 and helped the Golden Knights reach the final before losing to the Hurricanes, is just beginning his eight-year, $108 million contract signed last October. During that process, he and agent Pat Brisson were in touch with the union and saw the rising cap coming, yet Eichel harbors no regrets.
“It’s an incredible deal for me and my family,” Eichel said. “There’s no signer’s remorse. Yeah, I’m a happy guy.”
