There are several pending free agents who are playing themselves into large pay days this summer.
On Friday’s episode of The Daily Faceoff Show, Rachel Doerrie pointed out six players in particular who she thinks have especially set themselves up well to cash in.
Doerrie: “We’re going to look at Valeri Nichushkin. This is the increase in points per game from last season to this season. He’s basically doubled his production. Even though he hasn’t played as many games, he’s still playing least half the games.
“Evan Rodrigues, oh my goodness. When Crosby and Malkin were out to start the year, you look at that point pace, he’s almost a point per game player. That’s absolutely fantastic. So, he’ll probably be getting a rather significant raise.
“Alex Goligoski, having a career year. He looks great for Minnesota.
“Johnny Gaudreau, he seems to have rebounded back to kind of where we saw him when he was at the peak of his powers. He’s over a point per game. Even though Calgary is faltering a little, he still looks really good.
“Then you have Joe Pavelski, who’s on that over 35 contract, people kind of wondered if he’s tailing off a little bit. Well, absolutely not. He’s on pace for a career high, over a point per game. That’s pretty hard to ignore.
“Those are five guys I think that have earned themselves at least another $1 million on the AAV.
“Then you got one goalie. This guy has probably earned him the most money, with the exception of Kadri. And that’s Jack Campbell. He’s 18-5-3, the goals-against average — which is more of a team stat — is still extremely low. Save percentage is one of the best in the league at .935. Four shutouts and he’s on pace for a career-high 63 games played. I believe his career-high previous is 31 or 32. So we’re talking about doubling the amount of games played.”
You can watch the full episode here…
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