Paul Gaustad (USA) – Center – 6’5, 220lbs – Round 7, 220th overall in 2000 draft – 7 goals in 2012 – +/- of -1 – 57.3% win percentage (7th in league) on 1150 faceoffs taken – 47 blocked shots (63rd in league) – 2:45 minutes shorthanded ice time per game (9th in league) – 0 shorthanded goals – 16 powerplay goals scored against while on ice.

David Steckel (USA) – Center – 6’5, 217lbs – Round 1, 30th overall in 2001 draft – 8 goals in 2012 – +/- of -14 – 58% win percentage (6th in league) on 1108 faceoffs taken – 66 blocked shots (21st in league) – 2:17 minutes shorthanded ice time per game (29th in league) – 2 shorthanded goals – 24 powerplay goals scored against while on ice.

Boyd Gordon (CAN) – Center – 6’0, 195lbs – Round 1, 17th overall in 2002 draft – 8 goals in 2012 – +/- of +9 – 56.8% win percentage (8th in league) on 1177 faceoffs taken – 86 blocked shots (4th in league) – 2:53 minutes shorthanded ice time per game (5th in league) – 1 shorthanded goal – 21 powerplay goals scored against while on ice.

Max Talbot (CAN) – Center – 5’11, 190lbs – Round 8, 234th overall in 2002 draft – 19 goals in 2012 – +/- of +5 – 44% win percentage (awful-th in league) on 640 faceoffs taken – 58 blocked shots (31st in league) – 3:29 minutes shorthanded ice time per game (1st in league) – 2 shorthanded goals – 33 powerplay goals scored against while on ice.

Darren Helm (CAN) – Center – 5’11, 192lbs – Round 5, 132nd overall in 2005 draft – 9 goals in 2012 – +/- of +5 – 51.9% win percentage (36th in league) on 777 faceoffs taken – 27 blocked shots (same number as Patrick Kane) – 2:17 minutes shorthanded ice time per game (29th in league) – 0 shorthanded goals – 20 powerplay goals scored against while on ice.

Paul Gaustad – 2012-13 Cap Hit – $3.25MM
David Steckel – 2012-13 Cap Hit – $1.1MM
Boyd Gordon – 2012-13 Cap Hit – $1.325MM
Max Talbot – 2012-13 Cap Hit – $1.75MM
Darren Helm – 2012-13 Cap Hit – $2.125MM

Sorting through these numbers, five thoughts come to mind:

(1) Boyd Gordon is probably well underpaid – he really appears to have all the “intangibles” that a 3C, penalty-killing and faceoff specialist should have. His back problems are probably the main reason why he is so under-the-radar in the league.
(2) Flyers nailed it when they signed Talbot, who by these measures is both a huge bargain, and was clearly being under-utilized in Pittsburgh. However, he clearly needs to learn how to take a draw.
(3) David Steckel has extremely similar numbers to Gaustad, but is being paid 1/3 of what Gaustad is.
(4) Paul Gaustad is overpaid. I think the only number I’m impressed with is that he was only on the ice for 16 powerplay goals against in 192:53 minutes of shorthanded ice time. I’ll admit, that is really quite good. However, I think it needs to be clear that he had Ryan Miller and Pekka Rinne as his goalies, and Buffalo was a much better team and made a run for the playoffs after he left town.
(4) Is Darren Helm overrated? His numbers aren’t exactly special.

Man, the more we analyze, the worse this deal gets, huh? Gaustad has never, EVER been worth three million dollars a year. He’s not even worth two.

The decision to lock him up for four years might be the killer more so than the dollars spent, though. Two years from now, when he’s slower on the draw and even slower on his skates, who is going to want a 32 year old 4th line center who puts up 20 points and has a $3.25mil cap hit?

If I was to sign a player for $3 million a year, he better be scoring 15 to 20 goals a year, along with his defensive and faceoff skills.

I trust the Preds management know what they’re doing, considering the other moves they usually make. We’ll just have to see how it turns out, won’t we?

I thought the Preds would have been so happy to see how overpaid Joel Ward was and how they dodged a bullet on that one….guess not.

In the 24 games he played for Nashville last year, he had exactly 1 goal. In his 7 seasons in the league, he has averaged 10 goals per year, popping a total of 7 last year. 7 goals! $3.25MM!

Alex Semin, in his six seasons since the lockout, has averaged 31 goals a year. While it’s true he had a pretty mediocre season with just 21 last year….if Gaustad got $3.25MM to be a 4th liner, I can’t wait to see who offers Semin $8MM.

Parise must love that, dude is gonna get a $10MM offer from the Wild. Suter must look at that and just be in shock that the Preds would pony up $3.25MM for Gaustad, a rental player who didn’t do d— for them, before they took care of locking him down.

Also, Helm is five years younger, came off a better year, is arguably a better player and signed a deal of the same length for $4.5 million less than the Gaustad. That is why people have already-and will continue-to be talking about how Nashville overpaid on $$$ and years here.

Things are going to get obscene tomorrow.

Things are going to get obscene tomorrow.