Welcome back in all to the world's #1 most trusted NHL salary cap article. Well, depending on who you talk to at least. This week I want to take a look back here slightly on two deals that have recently been signed, along with a surprising waiver move that's been made.

Ridly Greig – RW – Ottawa – 22 years old

Contract (extension): $13M – $3.25M AAV – Four Years Remaining

Well, this was…surprising. I wasn't aware at all that these two sides were meeting to discuss a potential contract extension, but this is a very nice ticket for Ridly Greig to sign coming off a season where he had 26 points in 72 games. Ironically enough, he's on that same point pace right now, so that's consistency in my mind. This is a great deal for both sides for both the term and the AAV. For Greig, he started this season on the Senators depth lines and is now (at times) along the Sens top line with Brady Tkachuk, not a bad spot to be in for point production. For the Senators, this is an upside signing. At the end of this contract, he'll be an RFA which is perfect for the club if the two sides come back to the table, while Greig would only be approaching his age-26 season. It's great that Greig has seen time on the Senators top line, and if I'm Ottawa, I think that this is a player that can play multiple positions on a checking or scoring line. Plus, hey, he's a chippy player too and those guys are just fun to root for. For me, he's almost like an Andrew Shaw-type player. He'll get some top line minutes at times, other times he'll be along the depth, he's not afraid to throw hands…or bury a slapshot on an empty net (sorry, had to), and to complete the comparison, there's the occasional poorly-timed third period penalty down a goal.

For fantasy, I'd be curious if he's sought after in smaller leagues, but for dynasty or larger leagues he makes for a decent commodity to roster. Where he really has value here is maybe more on the DFS side when you're rostering a more expensive Brady Tkachuk, Drake Batherson, and adding in Greig on that line to bring the cost down. There are even times I've rostered Greig on a third line with Adam Gaudette, which looking back actually worked out a couple times this season.

Frank Vatrano – LW – Anaheim – 30 years old

Contract (extension): $13.7M – $4.57M AAV – Three Years Remaining – M-NTC

I'm going to be honest with you all here. I got the notification that Frank Vatrano signed an extension with the Ducks, looked it over, thought sure why not, and locked my iPhone. I really didn't think too much of a 30-year-old winger signing a three-year deal at $13M and assumed that the contract would be paid out evenly over that time period and that's all she wrote. However, I was chatting with one of my younger brothers who's a Ducks fan (more so chatting about Leo Carlsson), but I went down the rabbit hole of the Ducks cap as a whole and that lead to the Vatrano extension. If you look right underneath the contract details on PuckPedia, you'll see a little blurb below the notes. This is where this contract gets extremely interesting to me. Three million dollars of this deal is deferred salary that's going to be paid out at $900K for ten years starting in 2035. What? Did another California team look at what the Los Angeles Dodgers did with Shohei Ohtani (and others) and gave out a deferred money contract, because that's exactly what happened here!

Typically, in the NHL there's really no deferred money in a contract, instead that money is most often given out in signing bonuses, again extremely common here. The other way would be through buyouts and let me tell you all, if you're an older defenseman with plenty of term left on your deal, you can bet that's the path you're on. This however is interesting to me, as I wonder now if this is going to be a vehicle that clubs use to negotiate and I tried to come up with if this is a good idea for teams and players, or one that might age poorly. On the positive side, it's another negotiating tactic which is great to have, along with the tax incentives if the player resides in a state with no state income tax. Just taking the Ducks too as an example, one thing is important and that's to always follow the money. If Anaheim defers more money now, then what's stopping them from spending more in free agency? I don't think that's ultimately the plan here given where the team is right now, but it's certainly not off the table.  

There are negatives with deferring money that I think could go overlooked. I completely understand a player wanting their money up front on July 1^st, I don't think anyone could argue that, but I would go as far to say that money right now is more valuable than earning money down the road off a deferral. You could invest right now, there's compound interest that comes into play, and as far as a state with no state income tax, what's to say that state legislature doesn't change and now that $900K (or whatever the amount is), isn't significantly lowered. Thinking right now, January 2025, of what buying power you have now is always going to be less than it is 10 years down the road. I don't often like to cross sports here, but given the Dodgers are handing out deferred contracts left and right, there could be a pattern that they follow along with the solution to paying that money out over time. Deferral, deferral, deferral…sell the team.

I would imagine that when the Players Association and the league come together for the next CBA memorandum (2026), this notion of deferred money will absolutely be brought to the table, especially if between then and now we see more contracts structured like Vatrano's. What the two sides come up with is anyone's guess…let's just hope that it doesn't lead to a lockout as the current CBA is set to expire.

For those out there rostering Vatrano in fantasy, he's a decent asset to have on your team. He might be on a bit of a cold snap right now, but he's been a streaky player at times who's playing on a club that has trouble generating offense. We don't have to go back too far to see him net five points in four games, that's just the output that you get in having him on your fantasy team.

Tristian Jarry – G – Pittsburgh – 30 years old

Contract: $26.88 – $5.38M AAV – Five Years Remaining – M-NTC

Oh buddy. On Wednesday the Pittsburgh Penguins put Tristian Jarry on waivers. First off, he's going to clear. Nobody, even the not-so-smart teams we have in the league, is going to pick up that contract, which will see lead to the club looking to trade him and, in all likelihood, eating some salary in the deal. I didn't understand this contract in the moment and looking at the money that's left (three years at $5.37M per), this just was money that I don't see how looked good on a white board when planning things out. I will say, the timing does surprise me as backup goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic has also not been stellar this season and this is a Penguins club who is about to hit the road for nearly two weeks.

Maybe it was the final straw? I've weirdly caught more Pittsburgh games than I have in seasons past, and there's been three games just off of memory that they lost because of poor goaltending. I get it, every club can probably say the same thing there, but Pittsburgh is unique in a sense that they have given up a goal on the first shot of the game a Principal Rooney "Nine times". If there's one silver lining here for fantasy purposes, it's that you can now go out and roster Alex Nedeljkovic if you are in need of a staring goaltender, as it might be his net now for the foreseeable future.

*Salary Cap data from PuckPedia.com  

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