With his contract having come to and end, it’s time to look into what kind of deal Micheal Ferland could be receiving
Few players become fan favorites the way Micheal Ferland has with fans of the Calgary Flames. In just over 2 seasons as an NHLer, young Ferland has went from a relatively unknown prospect to the surprisingly skilled, yet tough, player. He has become a recognizable part of the Flames young and exciting core. With his 2nd full NHL season in the books and the completion of his 2nd NHL contract (a two-year deal with a cap hit of 825,000 per year) it’s time to try and figure out what Ferland’s third NHL deal could be, whether through salary arbitration or the team and him coming to a deal before that happens.
The best way to figure this out is to look at other players in the NHL who scored at a similar pace to Ferland last season who are around the same age. For the sake of comparison I limited the players to those who 1) played at least 65 games last season, 2) put up 20-30 points, 3) are signed to a contract that begins in the 2017/18 seasons, and 4) are under the age of 27. (All contract details/stats from Cap Friendly)
While not exactly a murderers row of players here, there are some interesting names and, besides a couple outliers, all the contracts are pretty similar to one another. All but two (Oscar Lindberg and Brett Connolly) are at least 3 years and all but 1 fall within a range of 1.5M-2.25M (Erik Haula being the only outlier). This provides a pretty clear picture of the range we should expect Ferland’s contract to fall in. Even if the arbitration ruling goes in his favor.
That said, there’s a player on that list that could give the clearest picture of what his deal could be.
Zach Hyman
The similarities between Zach Hyman and Ferland really are quite striking. Both are 25, were drafted in the 5th round in 2010, and had a coming out this season. If we look at Hyman’s season this year, his totals are very similar as well. All this while riding shotgun to Toronto’s top young player in Auston Matthews (like Ferland with Johnny Gaudreau). If we look at the deal he received, it falls in line with the range for dollars. He did get the longest term with 4 years, though. Something Calgary may want to avoid.
Taking all this into account, the potential contract he could receive becomes more clear. Assuming the Calgary Flames sort it out before arbitration his deal will likely be a three years. As for the dollars, it’ll likely fall into the ranged of 1.75-2.25M. Not a bad contract for a guy with Ferlands mix of skill and toughness.
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Whatever Ferland ends up getting, it won’t be as bad as the deal Lance Bouma got 2 years ago.