Avalanche makes HISTORIC Move...

It is official, Kale McCarr of the Colorado Avalanche is set to be the highest paid player in NHL history unless another player signs another massive deal before his contract even kicks in because we still have another year and with the way contracts are trending who knows what is going to happen but for Colorado Avalanche fans you can take a deep breath it seems highly likely that Kale McCarr is going to spend his entire career or at least the next nine years of his career with the Avalanche and while the price was very high and I think some people are stunned with how much he's going to get paid it makes a lot of sense you would have liked to see a bit more of a discount from the Colorado Avalanche perspective but when you consider they also got the turn I think in a way that kind of works as a discount especially in today's NHL and how much this cap is going to continue to rise so I think you take this deal I think this is a deal you have to do some people might say this is an overpay this is just how the NHL is going to work and honestly by the time it kicks in we're going to have news on like a new salary cap increase if everything trends the way it's looking at right now so we're going to dive into this contract for Kale McCarr and really quickly before we do that if you have not already be sure to subscribe to the channel it really helps us out we're on the road to 20,000 subscribers appreciate all the support as we continue to put NHL content like this let's dive into this deal who was first reported figures wise by Elliott Freeman if I am correct but he also added this which I think is more interesting than just the details of this contract and that is not only is he the first 20 million dollar contract in the NHL which I feel like we all expected it to be Kale McCarr I know there was some wondering if maybe it would be Macklin Celebrini but it always felt like it would be Kale McCarr this feels right especially what he's already accomplished in the NHL and then the total if you look at the total of this deal which I think is the crazier detail it's 163.2 million dollars figures like this they feel unheard of in the NHL this is also likely going to be one of if not the final eight year deals in the NHL as you know by the start of the season these are no longer going to be eligible to be signed so it'll be interesting to see if maybe Quinn Hughes gets the last one although it's seeming very likely if he does sign with the wild it would be a shorter deal so in all likelihood Kale McCarr is your final eight year deal and what a bang for the eight year deals to go off now the actual average annual value sorry about that the average annual value of this contract works out to be 20.4 million dollars as Elliott Freeman notes that is four hundred thousand dollars under the maximum so Kale McCarr is getting paid pretty close to the max of the salary cap that he can get paid and you look at his year one when this starts in 2027-2028 the cap it's going to take up 17.97 percent of the cap that is a whole lot but then you look at the next year which we know for sure the cap will be going up another 10 it goes down to 16.59 and honestly if the cap continues to trend the way it has by year three year four this could be an absolute steal and honestly even if the cap does stagnate a little bit you're getting Kale McCarr at the end of the day the way I see these teams and how you should operate with these star players you should do whatever it takes to get them signed and then from there you work on the rest with Kale McCarr there is no defenseman better I know you argue year by year oh maybe this guy deserves Norris that guy deserves Norris I'm not saying he deserves to be the Norris winner every single year but in terms of consistency quality two-way play Kale McCarr is the absolute gold standard and in a game that is increasingly becoming more important to have these defensemen who can jump into the play and really be your fifth forward there really are none better than Kale McCarr in fact all these players you kind of compare them to like oh they're kind of playing like Kale McCarr and the fact that he shoots right not that it really matters the defenseman is good but it is just an extra bit looking at the last three seasons he has two seasons where he had 90 points and then this season he did have an injury ended up only putting 79 points the fact that we're saying only 79 just shows what quality of a defenseman Kale McCarr is and it's notable that he is 27 so while towards the end of that contract he will be getting older for the vast majority of this it's gonna be 28 29 30 31 32 that is your player's prime so are you locking up Kale McCarr's entire prime and then you get him after and when it comes to these superstar elite players more times than not they seem to age well you never know for sure what's going to happen until you see the player actually age but I don't think anyone at this point in time has any concerns about Kale McCarr even in terms of injuries I know there has been some talk about injury he has been relatively healthy now this playoffs he was not able to finish and you see in his playoff numbers he was not himself putting up five points in 11 games I'm not concerned about that in fact I'm more impressed that he was able to thug it out as long as he did the good news is he should be back to full strength next season and beyond that he really has not missed that many games since 2022 2023 even in that season he did still play 60 was able to return for the playoffs his best playoff run he had his 15 points in 11 games Kale McCarr is an incredible defenseman and you look at what he means to this avalanche team which is not the same team without him it really he is a huge part of the identity of this team I understand this is a ton of money it's going to make it tough for them to win a Stanley Cup which is why I talked about this season coming up is going to be very important right you have one more year of Kale McCarr at his current contract which is valued sorry does not have it here I believe he is making 9.5 million dollars correct me if I'm wrong apologize I should have that here as well actually do have it sorry never mind I have it in another slide right here he's making nine million dollars for this season you're going to want to take advantage of this season this is the year where I think they're going to have the best chance to really just go all in and win with the score and then from there anything else if you want another cup after that that is absolute gravy you still have two of the best players in the world anything can happen but this year even though it's tight with the salary cap you have this player now we now know to be a huge discount after that though it is worth noting they still will have space now a lot of that space will have to be used towards finishing this defensive core because after this year you do have some expiring deals but like I said before I like to see teams just spend money on the absolute star players the guys that you cannot replace and then from there you can always play a little money ball trying to get some one million dollar players veterans who you think if they come on your team they can go for one more cup and give an elevated performance I think Brett Burns is a great example of the type of player you can fill out the rest of the team with you are going to have to sign five skaters but with 11.6 million dollars that is money you can work with and of course you can trade out other players different pieces it would have been absolutely incredible if kale mccarr would have signed say an 18 million dollar deal give them two more million maybe three more million to work with but honestly and I think it really eases concerns for this team that you had kale mccarr locked up now even though there was never a doubt that he was leaving that puts a lot of pressure on a team now everyone can just sit tight and focus on winning a stanley cup and you look at the rest kale mccarr locked up for the long term you also have Devin Hayes locked up his partner now I will note Devin Hayes desperately needs to bounce back this season with kale mccarr now making 20 million dollars next season it does kind of reflect that even if Devin Hayes isn't what he formerly was this is still a seal of a contract just because of how much defensemen and their contracts are inflating you just take a look at a Minutov on the anaheim ducks he's making more money than Devin Hayes or just around that amount of money so you you do have a good deal there but hopefully he can bounce back and be his former self after that this defense has become a bit of a plug and play defense even with sam walensky signed more on the long term I feel like this is going to be something where if they find a way to improve for cheaper they might do it but as long as you have kale mccarr as long as you have Devin Hayes everything seems set the one deal I kind of question now that we know that kale mccarr signed for this much money is the Brett Kulak deal I don't think the aves got a great deal on that one as fans you can correct me if I'm wrong I like Brett Kulak I think he is a really solid fourth defenseman on a contending team I don't know if I'd be spending 4.5 million dollars especially when it comes to kale mccarr making 20 not that there's anything wrong with I think that's a great deal as you can see with the anchors he does have a full no movement clause not that the avalanche would ever think of moving this player especially now that he's locked up long term but Kulak's the one where I'm like I wonder if you could have kind of got a little cheaper to focus on maybe adding a little offense or even adding more defensemen again while they are going to have some cast space 11.6 million dollars to fill out the rest of your roster especially considering how as we can see money isn't going as far as it used to in the NHL can be a bit of an issue but that being said I can only see this as a Colorado avalanche win it'll be really interesting to see if they can win a Stanley Cup next season I think that's going to be their best chance after that they might maybe need to have to do a retool players are getting older your Brock Nelson's your your cadres but with this contract I think it really allows the team to focus on winning this season and not worrying about what's happening with kale mccarr and more importantly even if it doesn't happen as now that you have a Nathan McKinnon locked up kale mccarr locked up you have your core together Martin Nakas it feels like there's a very good chance this team can continue to win for years to come and for the rest of the division that sounds like absolute hell but I'm sure it sounds like music to you avalanche fans love to know what you think about this contract in the comments below that's gonna do it for this episode of NHL Digest yeah you can't go wrong signing the best defenseman in the NHL