David Krejci inked his current six-year deal with the Boston Bruins back in September 2014. Just how well have they done in terms of his production and value to the team?
When David Krejci renewed his contract for six years knowing he’d turn 35 in the final season of it, people did question whether the Boston Bruins were doing the right thing. However, at the time it was normal to reward your older players when they reached free agency.
Nowadays, the marketplace seems to have shifted and you have the likes of Connor McDavid on $12.5 million straight off his entry-level deal, but back then you earned the right to be paid well.
David Krejci, when the Boston Bruins renewed him had proven himself as a reliable 60-point regular season player but more importantly, one that scored big in the play-offs, thus had earned the six years of term at $7.25 million.
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Now, based on the first year of his new contract, you could argue the deal as being a case of so far, so good. 63 points in 72 games isn’t truly elite production and you could argue it was a slight over-pay for him, but nothing outrageous.
It was the next two seasons that really have served to shape Boston Bruins fans’ views on David Krejci. He dipped from an almost point-per-game player to a meagre 54 points on a full 82-game year in the 2016-17 season and then an even less impressive 44 in 64 games the next year.
Factor in his injury problems over that time and you can understand why Boston Bruins fans weren’t too impressed at their Czech center being paid in the same tier as the Daniel Sedin and Henrik Sedin, who despite playing for a troubled Canucks outfit still tallied 50 and 55 points respectively that year.
With just 0.69 points-per-game and averaging just over 16 minutes per game, David Krejci didn’t really deserve to be commanding 10.5% of the Boston Bruins’ salary cap.
By the end of the 2017-18 season, views had really soured on him and there were plenty of calls to trade him away. Instead though, the Bruins decided to hang onto him. Lo and behold, the David Krejci that we’d seen in the years prior to him inking that six-year deal seemed to be returning.
Last season, as the Boston Bruins marched to within one game of the Stanley Cup, David Krejci found his game once more. Still counting for 10.5% of the cap, he grabbed 73 points with an average of 0.9 per game.
On comparative cap hits and with similar ages were the likes of Bobby Ryan in Ottawa, who only managed 42 points, James van Riemsdyk in Philadelphia with 42 points and Zach Parise with 61 in Minnesota.
Suddenly, his production was at least coming somewhere closer to matching his contract. 16 points in 24 play-off games also helped!
This year, he’s ticking along once more at a 0.81 points per game pace. That looked particularly good when you check the cost per point of Joe Pavelski in Dallas. He’s cashing around $370,000 for every one of his 19 points this year.
Compare that to David Krejci who is costing us around $213,000 and I know who I’d rather be paying!
Now, you can’t kid and say we’re getting the best value possible from Krejci; his fellow countryman David Pastrnak is clearly the out-and-out best value player we have at just over $95,000 per point this year or $180,000 per goal (which ironically is still cheaper than Krejci’s per point cost).
What we are getting though is a contract that may have looked awful a few years ago but is actually proving to be one that has aged alright. Nothing like the nightmare of having $6 million tied up in David Backes’ contract!
As long as Krejci can continue to at least deliver the goods at his current pace, the Boston Bruins will be able to see out the next season and a half with relatively little concern.
Salary information courtesy of CapFriendly. Statistics correct as of January 30th.