Does Andrew Shaw’s contract set the bar for Chris Kreider?

Anthony Scultore Updated: Jun 28, 2016

kreiderlook Andrew Shaw signed a 6 year deal with an AAV of 3.9M yesterday. The question is, can his contract be used by Jeff Gorton when negotiating a deal with Chris Kreider. To me the answer is yes, but there are better contracts out there to use.

Shaw plays a tenacious game and uses his assets well, especially for crashing the net. That is likely where the similarities in their game ends. Kreider is much bigger at 6’3″ to Shaw’s 5’11” and is a lot faster to boot. Shaw has scored 20 goals once while Kreider is coming off back to back 21 goal seasons.

Still, since this is a recent deal, Gorton could use it to his advantage and claim that if anything Kreider is worth maybe only a bit more than 3.9M. Maybe somewhere in the range of 4.25 to 4.75 for about 5 to 6 years as well.

Shaw 3.9M. You can expect Chris Kreider to now command between 4.25 to 4.75M to sign (or more) pic.twitter.com/UlFPGoKcz6

— FullTilt Rangers (@NYR_FullTilt) June 28, 2016

Another thing to Gorton’s advantage are the contracts of several star wingers whom, Kreider has yet to match on a production level.

Andrew Shaw (6 yrs @ $3.9M) comparables:
Oshie 5 @ $4.175M
Simmonds 6 @ $3.975M
Gallagher 6 @ $3.75M

More: https://t.co/6VeSvJl1pl

— General Fanager (@generalfanager) June 28, 2016

Wayne Simmonds who matches up much better to Kreider than Shaw, signed his deal after a lockout shortened season where he scored 15 times in 45 games and the previous year when scored 28 times. This season, he tallied a career high 32 times. So even if you adjust for some inflation over the last few years, a reasonable deal for Chris Kreider seems very possible.

If the Rangers could lock up CK20 for under 4.5M, it will be a great deal. If Kreider ever realizes his full potential it could be an outright bargain. Time to get to work Jeff and lock up your most important RFA.