Brooks tweeted this out earlier in light of O'Reilly's new contract w/ the Avs for 6m per. O'Reilly 73-118=191 in 345 games, $6M per. Stepan 73-124=197 in 294 games. When he comes up for arb next year, $6M is his comparable. (Brooks) I know this board is very hard on Stepan, but hard to argue with those numbers. Will be interesting to see what happens with him and what kind of year he has.
i like O'Reilly and think he's easily the superior player, but man, $6M? that's rough. And it's only a 2yr deal, so in the not too distant future he's going to cost even more.
And since the last contract was acrimonious at best don't see stepan coming to the table next year looking to take a cent less than 6 mill per which means to keep him this will probably be the last year for msl especially if guys like duclair and the russian kid can't remember his name are the real deal and may be ready by next year.
If Stepan is looking for 6m I think the front office will take him to arb again which Colorado didn't do. Krejci and Spezza would merit 6-7 for a few years next offseason. I guess it depends if they end up dealing Brassard at some point as well. I'd keep Brassard and use Stepan as a trade chip for a E. Kane next year. Could they get by with Brassard/Moore/Lombardi/Lindberg at C...?
Stepan is still only 24 and has already scored 50+ points twice while Brassard has yet to pass 50 but for some reason Brassard deserves $4.5-$5?
