How Does Jake Middleton's Extension Affect the Future?

Middleton isn't really blocking any young player.

This is really the problem. We're locked in at $4MM+ through 28-29, and Mids will almost assuredly be (or sure should be) blocking a younger player by the end of that deal.

As some have pointed out recently, we don't get the full $14.7MM in cap penalties back after this year, but rather $13MM, with $1.67MM/yr. staying on the books for another four years.

Question:

So, are the Wild locked into having only one available buyout slot all the way until 2029?  If that's the case, the multiple questionable contracts GMBG has signed (with trade protections) ove the last year look even worse.

I don't think it affects the future too much. We drafted a large defender in the 6th round this past draft who will need 5 years to be ready if he ever is. Outside of that, we really don't have someone in house who can replace his size. 

To me, he looked a bit faster in the first half of the season than in the past, and he scored some goals. With Spurgeon out, it seemed like he may have been trying to do too much and he got caught a lot. Yet, he did have a career high in goals, and I'd assume points. 

We get him for years where he should still be solid and good. Every team needs a Middleton type player. Ours costs $4.35m after next season. Inflation is up, even for hockey players. At some point, Shooter's going to have to buy some generic brands (or house labels) to stay within the cap. But this time he went for the name brand with the inflation price. 

Personally, I do hope we get the physical version of Middleton too. I felt he had played a couple of years afraid to take penalties even if they were coincidentals. He was more valuable on the ice than in the box, and I think he backed off of his aggressive physical play too much. 

15 minutes ago, bisopher said:

So, are the Wild locked into having only one available buyout slot all the way until 2029?  If that's the case, the multiple questionable contracts GMBG has signed (with trade protections) ove the last year look even worse.

Trade protection can easily be worked around. The main issue here is that the young kids coming up are not taking spots from placeholders. Guerin can move placeholders, even the Johanssons who have a full NTC. The next couple of years, there are only 3 NMCs on the roster, and 2 of those convert to M-NTCs. 

Guerin's not the only one giving the trade protection either. Buchnevich just signed a 6 X $8m deal with trade protection. But, as we saw with NYR, NTCs aren't very protective, you can move the guys. However, to even get a bag of pucks sometimes is out of reach for compensation. 

St. Louis picked up Mathieu Joseph yesterday for the price of taking him off their roster + a 3rd round pick. I suppose future considerations is like getting a steak dinner for the staff when they visit the city that one time each year. 

Someone explain the logic of signing a guy like Middleton to a 4 year extension, for 2X his current salary, a whole year prematurely, after his play regressed.

45 minutes ago, Will D. Ness said:

for 2X his current salary, a whole year prematurely, after his play regressed.

No explanation here.  Guerin's biggest blunder is the premature signings for players with marginal if any market value.  Does not compute.  If he's gaming the upcoming cap increases, I'd advise him to take a knee and prove to everyone that he can execute on the basics before any higher level thinking

#dontbedumbbill

I just saw that Matt Dunba signed with Dallas for 3.75 mil for 2 years. In comparison we got Middleton for a half a million more per year and extended them out for 4 years. To me it seems like bg is soft or can everybody give me your opinion do you think Middleton is that much better than dumba. There really isn't any difference between right and left-handed here because we have brodin, Chisholm and Merril as left-handers. In fact having dumba signed would give you some security in case spurgeon doesn't come back from his injury well.