Blues sign Parayko to five-year, $27.5 million deal

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

http://www.stltoday.com/sports/hockey/professional/morning-skate/blues-sign-parayko-to-five-year-million-deal/article_e8ac9acd-c673-50c3-8919-5cf92dc2ed38.html

Title says it all. STL has Colton under contract till 2022. I like the signing as Parayko is a stud who should only get better. 

[chippa13 1844]

That AAV will be a bargain by year 4.

[adams2001 54]

Parayko is going to be a great D-man and is in a great position to take his game to the next level with the amount of talent the Blues have on their blue line. I think the only point of contention is he should have been given more term and have a higher AAV so the next contract doesn't sag when he falls out of his prime. He could have been taken well into his 30s with more term and now the blues are going to have a Shattenkirk possibility on their hands when it is time to sign him to the next deal. 

[chippa13 1844]

By the time this contract ends Parayko will be underpaid and I'm not sure how he is going to fall out of his prime at 29 years of age. That is pretty much the sweet spot for NHL defensemen. If the Blues wanted to take him to a max length contract of 8 years then they would have had to pony up a hell of a lot more cash in order to buy those extra 3 years. In my estimation this was a good deal for both sides and Parayko will still have the chance to seriously cash in on his next contract.

[215BroadStBullies610 435]

47 minutes ago, adams2001 said:

Parayko is going to be a great D-man and is in a great position to take his game to the next level with the amount of talent the Blues have on their blue line. I think the only point of contention is he should have been given more term and have a higher AAV so the next contract doesn't sag when he falls out of his prime. He could have been taken well into his 30s with more term and now the blues are going to have a Shattenkirk possibility on their hands when it is time to sign him to the next deal. 

Directly from the article: 'The deal has a $5.5 million annual average value and leaves the Blues a little over $2 million below the salary cap.' There wasn't much room to work with for Blues' mgmt. 

[chippa13 1844]

And the team had to leave themselves somewhere to go on his next deal.