The new year is here and the NHL season is in full swing. Teams are jockeying for playoff position, and many players with expiring contracts across the NHL are playing games that could ultimately determine what type of payday they might receive in the summer.
In a multi-part series, we’ll take a look at each position group of the upcoming free agent class, and do a rundown on how those upcoming unrestricted free agents have performed this year. Which players have increased their odds of landing a massive contract? Which players have potentially hurt their earning potential with their play? We’ll break it all down here.
The Marquee Names
Jake Guentzel, Pittsburgh Penguins
Although the Penguins as a team haven’t had as strong of a first half of the season as they’d likely hoped to have, Guentzel is having an incredible individual season. Still just 29 years old, Guentzel is currently on pace to score 37 goals and 92 points if he keeps up his current pace across a full 82-game schedule. That would mark a career-high for the player, whose previous best season came when he scored 40 goals and 84 points.
Guentzel has long meshed with all-time talent Sidney Crosby on the Penguins’ first line, ever since he was a rookie and scored an otherworldly 42 points in his first 37 playoff contests. The Stanley Cup champion and two-time All-Star has been the most talented winger in Pittsburgh for quite a while now, and his elite form this season is setting him up nicely for a massive payday. Pittsburgh will undoubtedly make a strong effort to keep him, but with William Nylander earning $11.5MM on his own contract extension, one wonders if Pittsburgh will be able to stomach making Guentzel its highest-paid player.
With Erik Karlsson already making $10MM against the Penguins’ cap and significant dollars already committed to Crosby ($8.7MM), Kris Letang ($6.1MM), Evgeni Malkin ($6.1MM), and over $15MM to the trio of Bryan Rust, Reilly Smith, and Rickard Rakell, it could take some creativity to find a way to fit in a Guentzel megadeal. If they can’t manage that or otherwise elect to part ways with their leading scorer, expect him to potentially be the top available name on most free agent rankings.
Steven Stamkos, Tampa Bay Lightning
It’s relatively surprising to see Stamkos, who one could argue is the greatest forward in Lightning history, still without a contract extension beyond this season. If he does end up hitting the open market, though, he’s likely…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Pro Hockey Rumors…