Jakob Chychrun’s new contract with Capitals is great for everyone involved
Jakob Chychrun has cashed in as earlier Tuesday the Washington Capitals defenseman agreed to an eight-year extension that will carry a $9-million annual average value.
On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk discussed Chychrun’s play this season and why he is fully deserving of his sizeable extension.
Tyler Yaremchuk: Let’s move on to the news of the day. An extension out in Washington as the Capitals sign Chychrun to an eight-year deal. It comes with a $9-million annual average value for the 26-year-old, which makes him the Capitals’ highest-paid defenseman. He will earn $1 million more than John Carlson next season. He is one goal away from a career high. He is fitting in perfectly on this Capitals’ blue line. Like I said, he’s 26 years old. I don’t have any concern about the number here. Yes, he’d tied right now for the 10th highest cap hit among defensemen in the league, but as we know, the cap keeps going up and that will continue to age well. I like that the Capitals are keeping him in the mix.
Frank Seravalli: If he plays every game this season, he probably finishes with something like 23 or 24 goals. It’s not a stretch to say that this is someone who could challenge Mike Green. I think one of his career goals written down on paper is to become a 30-goal scorer as a defenseman. He is eminently capable of that. You heard Chris Patrick say in their release today that he is a proven, dynamic offensive defenseman, and he truly is. The term and the dollars don’t scare or surprise me. You mentioned the cap going up, but also just look at the production. The goals really mean something when they come from the back end. I also think about one of the very best conditioned athletes in the NHL. You’re talking about a top one percent of players who take care of themselves and their body on a daily basis. I don’t have any concern that he’s not going to age well. Some may look at his injury history and say, ‘Hey, that has to be significant,’ and I’m like, outside of the one knee injury, most of them are kind of freak occurrences. If you’re looking for some old listening material, last season while he was still with the Ottawa Senators, I did a Frankly Speaking with Chychrun, and we went in-depth on all those injuries and what had sort of been plaguing him. It has been an interesting ride for him. [This is] a life-changing contract, and he basically near doubles the $4.6 million that he was making on this current long-term deal that aged beautifully. I have no doubt that this was the right play for the Capitals. For a player of his stature, I think they initially began talks earlier in the year, somewhere in the $7-plus million range. It was like, ‘Dude, when you see his production, when you think about what the comparables are and what they could be, he’s well within his rights to get to that $9-million number.’
You can watch the full segment and the rest of the episode here: