Welcome back, everyone to the world's premier destination for all things salary cap life and love. I write this while taking a break from contacting ESPN fantasy regarding how messed up the position assignments are for fantasy hockey. I share with you all my response in the chat I'm in –

"I don't have a timeline for a resolution. Hey boss, you know – another day in Disneyland lol"

So, let's move away from that plight and talk NHL salary cap and contracts. I didn't have much in line for this week but then the NHL provided us with two gifts, as Logan Cooley and Thomas Harley have both reached extensions with their respective clubs. Let's talk about it.  

Logan Cooley signs an eight-year, $80M ($10M AAV) deal with the Utah Mammoth

Amazing, the things that can happen when your owner is supportive of the club that they, ya know, own. Wednesday morning, Logan Cooley signed an extension that is going to keep him in a Mammoth sweater until his age 30 season, where he'll undoubtably cash in twice in his career. I was just talking to a league mate about Cooley because the other day I found myself doing one of my favorite things: Going back and looking at old drafts. I stumbled into the 2022 draft and as you'll recall, this was a difficult one to gage talent because of the COVID shortened seasons that affected the way we could evaluate talent in North America, and abroad. I think by now I have a pretty good batting average when it comes to drafts (my grandkids will be living off my Cole Caulfield stock – In Wisconsin), but hand up here, Cooley was a major miss for me. I even remember texting league mates when he was selected that the Coyotes at the time were, "The most diverse frat on campus", as they all wore the exact same suit and tie. Shortly thereafter, once I really got to see him play, I realized quickly what I was missing.

The Mammoth are a fun watch, and I was high on this club coming into this season. Now, they've locked up their first line center for the long haul. I don't see a roadmap to where Utah would ever draft high enough to find a franchise top centre again like they have with Cooley, and with the rising salary cap ceiling, in three seasons this could look like one of the best deals in the NHL. Remember, this is a player that is in their age-21 season that could very possibly end up near the 85-point mark this season. We're all about fun here, so for the sake of a good time let's say that he ends the season right on the money at 85 points. The last 21-year-old player to collect that many points at age 21 was…well, if you guessed Connor McDavid, you'd be right. Now, I'm no way comparing those two on a player-to-player basis, but this does just point to how special Cooley is at a very young age.

I was curious over the offseason because Utah didn't throw their hat in the ring on Nikolaj Ehlers, and instead traded for JJ Peterka from the Buffalo Sabres as their big offseason move. Outside of the fact that the trade may be a rare win-win situation, I think we now know that the Mammoth have shown their hand on just who is going to be in their core moving forward.
Like last week, I typically avoid that phrase because if you're wrong, the thing that ultimately sinks you is never the money, it's the term. The league has plenty of one-year head scratchers when it comes to money on a club's book, but the ones that grab our attention are the contracts that stretch farther than any GM would want to take. Still, I'm optimistic about this group and the talent that they have coming in with Tij Iginla, Daniil But, and I'm also on Dmitri Simashev watch. Spending may have always been part of the plan for the Mammoth as right before the season they extended their primary goaltender in Karel Vejmelka, under contract until 2030.

In a vacuum, I do like this extension, and this is 100% a rising tide lifts all boats situation for talented players on an ELC – looking at you, Conor Bedard, Macklin Celebrini, and same-age player Adam Fantilli. I'd think their agent's phone has gone off once or twice today, be my guess. For fantasy I wish I was rostering Logan Cooley, or really anyone from Utah for that matter. I do have the Mammoth in our points pool, so I catch a fair bit of their games, and I don't think their coaching staff gets the credit that they deserve. Cooley should be a top draft pick from the center position for years to come.

Thomas Harley signs an eight-year, $84.70M ($10.5M AAV) deal with the Dallas Stars

Have to shout out DiGiorno before we start here (go back and watch Harley's press conference following the extension). One of my rules in hockey is that when you're in a championship window, you can't cheap out. The Stars know this and have extended Harley to an eight-year deal worth $84.7M. For a lot of folks out there, his coming-out party was the Four Nations Cup last season, but for me it was more the Western Conference Finals against Edmonton. I know how the series ended (4-1 Edmonton), but looking at Harley's numbers, he led all Dallas defensemen in ice time, had three assists, and just eye test looked like he belonged out there. I remember writing about Harley in the preseason outlook for the Stars a couple seasons ago, but did not think that even then that we would have the conversation that Harley would be pushing Miro Heiskanen off the top power-play unit at times.

I'm not saying that I like or dislike the Stars' salary cap situation, but I will say that this is a weird group. I can see Dallas becoming an extremely top-heavy roster pretty quickly and that's evident in their blue line spending next season as once the Harley extension kicks in, they will shoot all the way up to seventh in terms of dollars allocated to defense. If you're going to become a top-10 club in blue line dollars, then you better have a top-10 blue line. I understand that sometimes roster construction can position a roster to spend more or less in a particular roster group, but it is something to keep in mind.

For fantasy I drafted Harley very late and have been happy with the offense that he brings along with the blocked shots, as he now is up to 30 on the season only behind Braydon McNabb and Darnell Nurse, both of whom Harley is a better offensive defenseman. I'm a little surprised he fell to me in our draft, and I'm sure there's others out there who may have had similar circumstances as I did. Harley is going to be a premier defensemen for fantasy this season as I don't think it would be farfetched to see him finish above where he did in points last season at 50.

*Salary Cap data from PuckPedia.com  

For continued fantasy news and notes, follow me on Twitter @ndySanz.