[Buffalo News] Combien les Sabres devraient-ils s’attendre à payer à Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen cet été ?
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seeldoger47
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@Sabres de Buffalo
[Buffalo News] Combien les Sabres devraient-ils s’attendre à payer à Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen cet été ?
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I don’t expect UPL to take a team friendly deal at all with the way they’ve treated him. So as long as it isn’t egregious I’ll be happy
I’m not a fan of long term deals on goalies. I would be really happy with a 5.5×2 or maybe 3 years.
30m / 5 years
>A starting point could be the three-year contract that the Minnesota Wild gave Filip Gustavsson last July. Gustavsson was also 25 years old but had played 34 fewer NHL games than Luukkonen when the Wild gave him a deal that counts $3.75 million against the salary cap each season.
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>Gustavsson led the Wild to the Stanley Cup playoffs with 37 wins, a remarkable .931 save percentage, a 2.10 goals-against average and three shutouts. He hadn’t played 40 games in a season, though, and, like Luukkonen, endured some struggles when he was breaking into the league.
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>Luukkonen’s agent will aim for a higher average annual value, though, because the salary-cap ceiling will rise next season and Luukkonen achieved those impressive counting stats while appearing in more than 50 games.
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>An annual cap hit of approximately $4.5 million seems like a logical landing spot for the Sabres and Luukkonen when you consider the comparable contracts and factor in inflation.
His agent will have a really hard time making that case. Because Gustavsson’s contract adjusted for 1 year with maximum salary cap increase is $3.8Mx3, not $4.5M lol. And Gustavsson would’ve needed to play 15 additional games with a .828 save% to come down to Luukkonen’s counting stats. So I strongly doubt his agent will be able to convince Adams that Luukkonen’s season was not only better, but so much better that he deserves a 20% higher salary.
>He’d likely earn more than $3.75 million if he elects for salary arbitration, which he has the option to do if the two sides don’t complete a contract before July 5.
How he arrived at this conclusion is beyond me as well. Considering Swayman got awarded $3.475M and Samsonov $3.55M, both less than $3.75M adjusted for a 5% salary cap increase, with significantly stronger seasons than Luukkonen.
3 x 3.5M-4.5M seems like a safe path forward for both parties IMO. Could honestly care less if we overpay him a bit as long as it’s less than 4 years.
If I had to wager a guess, probably about [this much](https://youtu.be/l91ISfcuzDw?si=13LEkFux7obd0XDQ)
3 x $4MM
4.5M x 3yrs
On one hand, he played for what? 3 years and was awful apart from half of one of those seasons. Your new contract should reflect the entirety of your play from the previous contract. If he wants a big deal, I could see him signing a 2 year 2.5m prove it deal. I mean that’s honest to god investing in himself there. He knows he wasn’t able to perform up to his level of play post hip surgery. He’s back to full health and mentally strong in net again, clearly. You get two elite seasons in net as the main starter, teams will have no choice but to pay you what you’re worth on another 3-4 year deal. Thats just my take as a goalie myself.
Offer him max dollar and max term. He can take it or leave it.