from Allan Muir of Sports Illustrated,

The Blues showed the star right winger exactly what they thought of him with a stunning eight-year, $60 million contract. The length of the deal is the longest allowed under the CBA. The $7.5 million average annual value makes Tarasenko the highest-paid player on the team.

To many minds it’s a deal he’s earned. The 23-year-old Tarasenko has quickly established himself as one of the game’s top offensive stars. He scored 37 goals last season, tied for fifth in the league, and ranked 10th with 73 points. Nothing wrong with paying a top player top dollar.

Except, of course, that it’s not the way the system has worked in the past. Young stars at the end of their entry-level deals, as Tarasenko was, often settled for bridge pacts that included significant (but not outlandish) raises and a short terms. Such contracts forced players to prove themselves worthy of bigger deals and protected teams from over-committing to athletes with short résumés.

Now, though, teams need protection not only from themselves but from predacious competitors bearing offer sheets. The fear of losing a good young player to free agency (without getting something tangible, beyond draft picks, in return) is why the cap-strapped Bruins and Blackhawks felt compelled to trade away Dougie Hamilton and Brandon Saad, respectively, both of whom then got significant deals from their new teams.

read on