Welcome back in all to the world's #1 most trusted NHL salary cap article! I'm going to come right out here to start…I can't say I was all-in on the Four Nations coming in, and don't think that I was alone. From a marketing standpoint, it didn't really gain steam until right before the tournament started, and I understand that some out there were critical on the roster construction along with the nations involved. Of course, selfishly enough, I was coming into this whole thing hoping that all the players that I have in fantasy avoid any injury, but even if I was not in a fantasy league, you of course don't want to see anyone get hurt on the ice. These are all valid points, sure, but I watched one game of this tournament and have been hooked ever since. I don't have an ounce of Swedish or Finnish blood in me and yet here I am watching Mikael Granlund bury an overtime goal. It is excellent theatre, and I imagine the majority do not miss watching Nikita Kucherov sleepwalk through some drill at all-star weekend anymore.

For today's Capped, I wanted to highlight some standout performances that may have gone overlooked from the tournament. I'll spoil it now: I won't get into the Quinn Hughes will he or won't he play, or each Tkachuk brother getting into a scrap before J.T. Miller fought Colton Parayko/himself. I will say, Brad Marchand getting an applause at the Bell Centre was something I never thought that I would see happen.

Jaccob Slavin – D – Carolina/USA – 22 years old

Contract $37.1M – $5.3M AAV – Final season before three-year $6.39 AAV deal, includes NMC

I have been writing about Jaccob Slavin in some recent DFS articles here on the site as a cheaper defenseman option, but that also had a little bit to do with his play in the month of January where he hit a stretch of five points in three games. I've been extremely impressed with his game so far for Team USA, as he led the team in time on ice against Canada and while didn't appear on the scoresheet, Slavin made some very good plays in the neutral zone to help drive the offense. I do wonder why if he is playing high minutes and leverage situations for Team USA up against the best competition in the world, why isn't he given these opportunities in Carolina? I can't remember a game off the top of my head where he has quarterbacked the top power play, as recently those honors have gone to Brent Burns, Shayne Gostisbehere, or Dmitry Orlov.

I was curious what type of contract extension that he was going to get going into his age-30 season, as he got a slight bump in salary going from $5.3M per season to $6.3M. I understand going up in salary as a defenseman gets into their 30's can be risky, but at that number compared to where he was previously is fine, and given the contract's length (three seasons), it will not become a burden on the Carolina salary cap. For fantasy, I currently don't roster Slavin in my main league, but only reason being because I currently roster Seth Jarvis and don't want to be too heavy on one club.

Sidney Crosby – C – Pittsburgh/Team Canada – 37 years old

Contract: $104.4M – $8.7M AAV – Final season before two-year $8.7 AAV deal, includes full NMC

I'll go back to the tape here: Sidney Crosby is skating through the neutral zone against Sweden in overtime, he slows up a bit, and out of nowhere does a no-look pass back to Mitch Marner who skates right in between the circles to bury an OT winner followed by the loudest crowd reaction I've seen in a while. I don't know how this stands out in my mind, but Mattias Janmark scoring the first goal in Game Four comes close, but this was electric. I watched the replay a couple times and for a second enjoyed greatness on the ice in Crosby's play.  

Say what you want, we had two potential Olympics taken away from him being able to compete it and there was no one reason why. COVID. IIHF. NHLPA. Whichever entity, but here we are again watching Crosby play at a high level in international play as the oldest player in the tournament. If you're rooting for Team Canada or not, you have to tip cap to greatness when it's on the biggest stage. We've had this many times along the way for Sid, but there haven't been too many times recently watching the Pens on a random Wednesday compared to what we're seeing from him now. 

Not going to get into the Cap when it comes to Crosby, we all knew what the AAV was going to be, the term was the only question. For fantasy, I can say that Crosby was taken probably a round too early in our live draft but nobody in the room made a comment on it. If you currently roster him the Penguins top line has been good for fantasy…" real" hockey maybe not so much in the defensive department but this is an article about fantasy hockey, we take the good with the bad.

Samuel Ersson – G – Philadelphia/Team Sweden – 25 years old

Contract: $2.90 – $1.45M AAV – One year remaining

I didn't think that Samuel Ersson was going to get a start here in this tournament, but then there he was suiting up for Team Sweden. I'm not 100% sure this nation knew which players on their roster were the "best" or not, but that's beside the point. Ersson stopped all nine high danger shots and looked like the moment wasn't too big for him at all in net. Sometimes these international tournaments really help and propel younger players, and I wonder if that's going to be the case here.

Besides how Philly constructs their lines, which is overall maddening, this club is in an excellent spot cap-wise moving forward. They have three picks currently in the first round of this year's draft (including their own), currently possess the most cap space of any club, and have one salary retention spot left if they were to use it at the deadline. The only con here, is that I don't like some of their money on the blueline, but I'll look past that for now as this club isn't at the point in competing right now. It's weird saying that given this time last season, they were but a lot can change in one off-season.

For Ersson, he's at an excellent price point for this club and if he can provide a couple strong months than I would think that the organization would have full confidence in him going into next season. For fantasy, he's a rental player in net for now unless his consistency in starts changes.

*Salary Cap data from PuckPedia.com  

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