E153: Connor McMichael signs a 6 year deal. Can he replace Kyrou?

But we do have some stuff to talk about, starting with the Connor McMichael extension.

Uh, this might be old news to anyone watching it now, um, but because we took a, a couple weeks off, we have not talked about this on the show yet.

So, uh, McMichael signs a six-year extension, um, worth 6.75 million per, that's the average annual value, that's the, the cap hit, um, on that one.

So he was obviously acquired in return for Jordan Kyrou, along with, um, a prospect, uh, Milton Gastrin, and the 16th overall pick in this year's draft.

Uh, then, I'm trying to remember the, the chain of events.

He was an RFA, uh, at the time.

I believe filed for arbitration, and I think it was wise to not let it get there.

I'm not sure if the plan was ever to let it get there.

I, I, that sort of struck me as, okay, I don't wanna, you know, worry about, uh, getting a contract or not, or letting this be, like, a lengthy negotiation, or having to think about offer sheets, and I'm sure the, the Blues didn't wanna have to worry about that as well.

So him filing for arbitration in my mind was, like, the backup plan.

That's sort of, you know, I wanna be here, I wanna, like, get this figured out and, and if we aren't able to negotiate something, just wanna have, have something in place.

Now, it never got there, right? The Blues announced, uh, I think it was last week that, um, yeah, last week, or I guess the week prior.

Um, my, my time is running together.

I'm on vacation time or what have been.

Uh, they, they announced that they signed him to a six-year deal, and, uh, buyed, he, they, they are, like, buying out, um, two of his remaining RFA years, and then those, those last four would be UFA years.

Uh, and this contract will bring him through his age 31 season.

He'll be, uh, 31 in 2032 when the contract expires.

And here's the other interesting thing to me.

He has a modified no trade in years three through six, so, uh, no trade protection this upcoming season or the one after, and then for the remaining four, he's got a modified no trade, but it's only a three-team no trade list.

Uh, so that is a lot of flexibility that the Blues have if they decide they do wanna trade him, which is music to my ears.

We've talked a lot about will they trade this person? Okay, they're gonna have to approve it for a lot of the, the Blues trade candidates lately.

And so having this set up to where they have a little more flexibility in case things don't work out I think is great work.

Um, I think the price tag was a little high, uh, a little higher than some people were expecting.

Alec, what do you think? Do you think this is a good deal? Uh, do you think we're simply just gonna have to get used to prices rising and contracts going up with the, the, you know, the rising-

[clears throat]