The Edmonton Oilers signed defenseman Ryan Shea to a five-year contract on Wednesday.
The deal carries an AAV of $4.0 million, according to the team's own announcement.
That's a massive jump from the $900,000 cap hit Shea carried with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
He earned it on the ice this year. Shea posted 6 goals, 29 assists and 35 points in 80 games with Pittsburgh, finishing plus-30.
He was still producing down the stretch, picking up 5 assists in his final 10 games while running a plus-7 rating.
His playoff run added one assist in 6 games before Pittsburgh's season wrapped.
Shea was a fourth-round pick, 121st overall, by the Chicago Blackhawks in 2015. He worked his way up through Northeastern University and the AHL's Texas Stars before sticking in Pittsburgh.
The number that makes this contract a real bet
Here's the part that should give Oilers fans pause. Before this season, Shea had six points total over his first four NHL years combined.
So does one monster season buy a defenseman five years and $4 million? That's the question Edmonton just answered with a signature.
The Oilers blue line already runs deep. Evan Bouchard, Mattias Ekholm, Jake Walman, Connor Murphy, Ty Emberson and Spencer Stastney are all still on the roster.
Betting long-term money on a 29-year-old off a career year is a bit like trading in a reliable sedan for a truck payment you haven't budgeted for yet.
General manager Stan Bowman is the one who signed off on this. It's a swing that only pays off if last season was the new normal, not the outlier.
Shea will be 34 when this contract expires. Edmonton just bought five years to find out which version of him actually shows up.
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Was signing Ryan Shea to a five-year, $4 million deal a smart bet by the Oilers?
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