Good day everybody, know there has been a slight hiatus over the last month or so and I do apologize for that. Between another move that happened somewhat last second, a slew of technical issues, and some other issues, the last month has been frustrating on a lot of fronts. With that said, I am back, and I present to you your weekly Capped article!

Over the course of the summer, there has been a lot of contract signings, along with extensions being given out to a lot of players that range from role players right up to the superstars in the NHL. The amount money that some players have received versus their body of work has been ridiculous up to this point. With the current scope of the salary cap, and the way the comparables/projectables are working out in today's NHL, I am nowhere near surprised that this has resulted in some players receiving a huge amount of money.

*If a player has signed an extension that kicks in at the beginning of the 2023-2024 season, there will be a note made about that, I will show the contract the player has for this upcoming season, along with the extension. *

* Most recent season stats are displayed, followed by the career stats underneath. *

#1) Tim Stützle – LW – Ottawa Senators

Contract: $925K – 1 Year remaining (expires this upcoming summer)
                   $8.35M – 8 Years remaining (begins in the 2023-2024 season)

As of the time of writing this section, Tim Stützle and the Senators have now inked a massive extension worth just shy of $8.5M per year until he is 28 years old. Very limited experience, a very small sample size, but the sample that we've gotten to witness has been impressive. While he isn't at a point per game, lets also remember that the Senators haven't been deploying the best roster with the best supporting cast the last couple of seasons as well. Given the extension, it seems as though they envision him being a cornerstone of the team going forward. I think in the end this contract was signed at the right time, while the dollar amount blew my mind at first, I like to believe that if the Senators had waited until his ELC expired they would have been paying more than what they did. This season he should see some time with elite players like Claude Giroux and Alex DeBrincat, whether it is on the power play mainly, or at even strength, it is still time to play with highly touted players and that can always carry tremendous value for younger players. DeBrincat got to play with Jonathan Toews Patrick and Kane and learned from them, meanwhile Giroux was the teacher to players like Sean Couturier. Stützle will learn how to play the game the right way from the two of them, his own skill is tremendous, and he is my favorite player out of the 2020 NHL Entry Draft by a country mile. Something to note is that this season he had 125 hits, odd thing to have for a playmaking winger/center hybrid especially with not being a huge player. If he can keep that up, along with adding a little bit more to his point totals you will have a unique player on your team. Ottawa should be growing around Stützle and their other young players, expect them all to sort of take steps and leaps together as a group while being insulated around players like Giroux and DeBrincat.


#2) J.T. Miller – C – Vancouver Canucks

Contract: $5.25M – 1 Year remaining (expires this upcoming summer)
                  $8M – 7 Years remaining (begins in the 2023-2024 season)

From all accounts, I didn't fully expect J.T. Miller to stay in Vancouver given all the rumors and speculation that he was going to be traded. My assumption is that Vancouver realized they weren't going to get what they were looking for from any of the interested teams, it seemed like Vancouver was expecting to receive a huge haul for Miller. Realistically, if you can't get the return for a player who just had shy of 100 points this last season you may as well sign him and lock him up. Over his three years with the Canucks, he has amassed 202 games and 217 points in that stretch (74 goals, 143 assists, 81 of those points were scored on the power play). He has quietly had a 99-point season, along with a 72-point season (in 69 games) in 2019-2020. Over his career he may not be super close to being a point-a-game player, he has certainly seemingly shifted into one during his time with the Canucks. When it comes to Vancouver's depth chart, they have players like Elias Pettersson, Brock Boeser, Bo Horvat, Conor Garland, Vasily Podkolzin (a potential sleeper pick this year), along with the signing of Ilya Mikheyev. Considering the Canucks just paid big money for J.T. Miller, if they still do intend on trading down the road, they won't risk hurting his trade value by playing him in less-than-ideal situations, so expect him to be one of, if not the main offensive piece for the Canucks this season. For $5M for this season, given what Miller has done over the last three calendar years, he is totally worth being on your fantasy team. He's played over 20 minutes a game on average with the Canucks in each of his last three seasons, he puts up just under two hits per game, his face-offs haven't been less than 53% in that stretch, and he is a key member of their power play unit. He brings a lot of value to a lot of different areas that not a lot of centers in the NHL can, I highly recommend him at $5M. If his production can stay close to what it has been in his tenure in Vancouver, I would enjoy rostering him for $8M as well. But that fully depends on if the Canucks do intend to move him or not before his NMC kicks in in the beginning of the 2023-2024 season.  

#3) Kirby Dach – C – Montreal Canadiens

Contract: $3.3625M – 4 Years remaining

I was a little bit surprised to see Dach end up in Montreal, there were a lot of rumors swirling around about who they were going to select with the first overall pick in the most recent draft. I assumed they would take Juraj Slafkovsky, but my gut told me that they would have taken Shane Wright to be able to build a foundation of two solid top-six lines centered by Nick Suzuki and Wright. They opted to take Slafkovsky to seemingly try and replicate what the Colorado Avalanche for their top line in Nathan MacKinnon, Gabriel Landeskog, and Mikko Rantanen. I think I would have preferred a duo of Suzuki and Wright down the middle instead of Suzuki and Dach honestly. Not that I don't like Dach but his body of work has not been impressive. I do understand that the Chicago Blackhawks have been sort of subpar these last couple of years and they've had some key injuries along the way. At the same time, you select this kid with the third pick in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft and play him in the NHL right away, there are some sort of offense related expectations. Dach also played at least 18 minutes a night in each of the last two seasons, granted he was hurt for the majority of the 2020-2021 season, but was still used in a large role. He has a very small sample size with the Blackhawks, I expect to see some sort of development from him. Given his struggles so far, the Canadiens were able to lock him up to sub-$3.5M for 4 seasons, I think it is a very sneaky contract that may be kind of average or subpar for the first year or two, but in the back half I think is when it may look a lot better. It really all depends on how the Canadiens deploy their centers because they also just got Sean Monahan from the Calgary Flames. It's hard to project if Monahan or Dach will be their second line center behind Suzuki. This will ultimately play a factor going forward for Dach as a whole, but realistically as a late round selection, given his age and low contract value he is worth taking a gamble on. There are way too many unknowns to select Dach in a middle round of any draft. He doesn't hit or block much, he's struggled to get points, he may not receive powerplay time (top powerplay time I mean), he may be deployed as a third line center with depth players around him, he has also struggled heavily in the face-off dot. While Dach was a former third overall selection, and there is still a whole lot of developing left to do, I'm not sure if he has much fantasy relevance in his current state.


I do apologize for the hiatus of Capped, but as I mentioned there have been a slew of issues arise for me in this last month, and with the offseason soon wrapping up, we have so much more to take about leading up to the season, such as draft strategies and what not so stay tuned for that!

If you're looking to discuss anything hockey with me, check out my Twitter account (@JamieMolloy_DH), as well as on the articles themselves!