The contract
Toronto Maple Leafs sign defenseman Chris Tanev to a six-year deal with a $4.5 million AAV.
Chris Tanev is still one of the very best defensive defensemen in the league. He’s a shutdown force and showed as much during last year’s playoffs keeping Jack Eichel and Nathan MacKinnon at bay in back-to-back series.
Tanev is a warrior and is exactly what the Maple Leafs needed on their blue line and will likely be the best partner Morgan Rielly has ever had. Not only that, he’s a major asset to the team’s offensive-minded forwards thanks to his elite puck-moving ability. He gets it out, he gets it out often, and he gets it out often with control. At $4.5 million, Leafs fans should be ecstatic.
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For now, anyway.
Six years is a long time for any free agent. Six years is a very long time for a soon-to-be-35-year-old shutdown defenseman. That term is likely what got Tanev’s price down to a palatable (for now) $4.5 million. But Father Time can strike at any point here making this contract a disaster in waiting.
That likely happens during the back half of the deal. Tanev should still be more than worth the price over the first two years, maybe even the third. After that, when he’s 37 years old, is where things get dicey.
It’s more than possible it doesn’t even get to that point. The existence of the LTIR framework might mean the worst parts of this deal vanish into thin air. That makes this a steal at the four-year mark and fair value at the five-year mark. It’s the sixth year that brings Tanev’s total deal into “negative value” range, but if you believe that year will never happen then this deal is nothing to worry about.
The thing about warrior defensemen though is that LTIR isn’t exactly a guarantee. Tanev may have an injury history, but he also has a “plays-through-injury” history that could very well mean those back years don’t vanish after all. There’s also the possibility that Tanev doesn’t age as expected and falls off a cliff sooner. The no-movement clause and contract structure likely mean LTIR is the only way out too.
Those are the risks, the ones that mean this deal isn’t a total home run. But at the very least, Tanev should fit the Leafs roster like a glove and be everything the team needs for a deep playoff run. He’s worth the risk.
Contract grade: B
Fit grade: A+
(Photo: Kavin Mistry / NHLI via Getty Images)
