Sharks general manager Doug Wilson knows a thing or two at getting his players on value contracts.
Earlier this off-season, Wilson inked forward Timo Meier to a four-year, $24 million extension with an AAV of just $6 million.
While Erik Karlsson broke the bank with his eight-year, $92,000,000 that pays an average of $11.5 million, Wilson has been able to sign his core of Logan Couture ($8 million AAV), Evander Kane ($7 million AAV) and Brent Burns ($8 million AAV) all signed to reasonable deals.
Wilson struck again on Monday, this time inking RFA Kevin Labanc to a one-year contract. Will one-year deals aren't out of the ordinary, the dollar value of $1 million for a player who registered 56 points (17 goals, 39 assists) in 82 games last season had hockey Twitter perplexed on how the Sharks were able to sign him at a bargain of a price.
With 214 NHL games under his belt, the 23-year-old has 116 points for a rate of .54 PPG that should've slotted in him in the $3-4 million range.
Clearly, Labanc is betting on himself to continue his upwards trajectory in points as he enters his 4th NHL season. With $8.5 million in cap space coming off the books in the form of Melker Karlsson, Brenden Dillion, Aaron Dell and Paul Martin's buyout, Labanc is aligning himself for quite the raise come the 2020 off-season.
"I’m comfortable with it, I’m confident,” Labanc told Curtis Pashelka of The Mercury News. “I’m happy where I’m at with my game, and I think the chemistry (Thornton), Sorensen and I had toward the end of the season was great.”
“The combination of betting on himself with the situation he’ll be in next year, and the belief he has in himself, that’s exciting to us,” Wilson said to Pashelka. “We have no problem taking care of our own guys as they grow and evolve.”
