I genuinely believe this will prove to be a bargain. Stone is already Vegas' best player, a franchise guy to build around. He gives them a buffer should some of their older guys like Stastny and Pacioretty or even Marchessault age out of effectiveness over the next couple of years.
We're also about to see a bunch of contracts signed go into that $10M+ AAV range. He's currently set to be in a tie for 12th in AAV with Malkin, Benn and Kucherov, which is company he belongs with. However, I also expect to see Karlsson, Panarin and Marner cruise past this. Rantanen, Aho, Laine, Point, Bobrovsky, Duchene, and Skinner are all in the mix as well. The next year we've got Hall, Backstrom, Pietrangelo, Vasilevskiy, etc. I'd expect to see Stone around 25th in AAV by July 2nd, 2020, which makes it a good thing he has a $7M signing bonus for that year so he gets paid even when the players get locked out in the fall of 2020.
Stone hits the jackpot!
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