On Monday, Mathew Barzal signed an 8-year, $73.2 million contract extension with the New York Islanders. On the surface, it looks like a standard piece of business – sign a franchise player to a market-value contract. For the Islanders, it is way more important than that. For years, they have played little brother to just about everyone in the league. Whether it was John Tavares, Johnny Gaudreau, or Artemi Panarin, the Islanders were a second or third choice, even for a player they drafted. Mathew Barzal has now changed that.
Largest Financial Commitment in Team History
Barzal’s $73.2 million total and the $9.15 annual average value (AAV) are the largest the franchise has signed in the cap era. Technically, the Alexi Yashin contract was worth $87.5 million total, but that was signed in 2000, before the 2004 lockout. This could be the Islanders’ largest financial commitment ever made to a player, but the salaries from before the cap era are not public information, so we cannot know for sure.
We know it’s not the biggest contract ever offered by general manager Lou Lamoriello, who has reportedly offered over $11 million per season on multiple occasions since taking over. However, of the Islanders players signed since 2004, Barzal certainly deserves the most cash, and he chose to commit to the team, something the franchise desperately needed.
Most Important Contract in Team History
While the New York Rangers try to build a contender after a few years of missing the playoffs and the New Jersey Devils begin their contention window, the Islanders must remain relevant. Of course, the Islanders can only be so relevant as the 7th or 8th most popular team in the tri-state area, but their two Conference Final runs came at the perfect time, between the pandemic and the increasing turmoil in other New York sports teams. People now know the names of the Islanders players, and with a new building they are trying to fill, that is important. The Barzal contract will give fans a reason to come to the rink now and in the future.
An elite player signing a long-term extension with the Islanders is a recent anomaly. Between 2001 with Alexi Yashin and 2014 when Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy joined forces on Long Island on the doorstep of the franchise’s move to Brooklyn, top-end free agents did not sign with the Islanders. Those deals aged pretty well, all things considered, with both players being important pieces to their 2015 playoff appearance and Leddy being a part of their conference finals runs. Boychuk and Leddy‘s success on the blue line, along with John Tavares on the front end, did not attract the free agents necessary to make a deep run in the 2010s. And when it was time for Tavares to re-sign, he obviously did not.
Barzal’s Value
Barzal’s contract is a massive financial commitment that has been getting some fair criticism from the national media. The $9.15 million AAV for a player with only one 80-point season could be considered an overpayment. He also now makes roughly the same amount of money as the Tampa Bay Lightning trio of Andrei Vasielevskiy, Brayden Point, and Nikita Kucherov but is not equal in terms of production or success. There is of course the other side of the coin with contracts such as Jeff Skinner, Darnell Nurse, and Jamie Benn who are vastly underperforming their 9 million dollar pay-days.
Related: Islanders’ Lamoriello Displayed Pros and Cons this Offseason
The upside on this value is two-fold: Barzal’s age and the incoming salary cap boom. Barzal turned 25 in May and he will be 34 – the age that Niklas Backstrom, Jonathon Toews, and Sidney Crosby are now – when his 8-year extension expires in 2031. The team will not be paying someone into their forties as they are doing with Rick DiPietro and they have avoided another contract discussion three years down the road.
Recent reports suggest the salary cap will dramatically increase starting in the 2024-25 season after the pandemic put a pause on steady cap growth. By the third year of the Barzal extension, his contract should take up less than 10 percent of the salary cap based on estimates released by the NHL this summer. For the final year of his bridge deal, he will take up 8.5% of the cap. Unlike most contracts, this deal will get better with age.
Young Players Signing Long Deals
Mathew Barzal is the final youngster to sign a long-term deal this summer for an AAV over $8 million. 21-year-old Tim Stutzle in Ottawa is locked up for 8 years, as is St Louis’ Jordan Kyrou at 25, and new Florida Panther Matthew Tkachuk at 24. Barzal will be an Islander until he is 34, which is a huge win for the team and the fan base but Barzal might lose out on money down this line by taking this deal now. The team has a player to sell tickets and for the young fans to look up to for the next 9 seasons. Regardless of whether or not they win the Stanley Cup, Islanders fans will be excited for the season to start every year for this contract just to watch the face of their franchise play.
