A Short Note On Second Contracts

I should've posted this last week, but the David Booth trade was interesting to me for a few reasons. If you recall, and who would in this information overload society, the trade was:

From FLA: David Booth, VAN's 3rd round pick

From VAN: Mikael Samuelsson, Marco Sturm

The things that are interesting:

- Vancouver dealt a player they signed in the off-season. Marco Sturm played exactly 6 games for Vancouver before being dealt. That's rare, but I suspect it will become slightly more common.

- Vancouver took more risk in the deal despite getting the younger player. David Booth is only 26, soon to be 27, but taking on his contract which has 3 more years after this one on it, is without question a large gamble. If he tanks, that contract may be difficult to move. Meanwhile, both Sturm and Samuelsson are on the final years of their contracts, and both could probably be moved at the trade deadline for extra draft picks.

The second contract can be an albatross just as much as a contract on a late 30s player. Take Derick Brassard, a player fighting for ice time in Columbus. He's getting less than 15 minutes a game, despite having been signed to 4 year, 12.8 million dollar contract. In the old days, a player like Brassard would never command that kind of money, and would almost certainly be in another organization by this point. This is something to keep an eye on as we see more and more of these enormous second contracts - some players will be cap albatrosses at 25, and some players' careers will be significantly hurt by contracts they sign at age 21 or 22.