Erskine Signs For... Wait For It... $2.5 Million

by J.P. on Oct 23, 2008 8:55 PM EDT

John Erskine's two-year contract extension will pay him $1.25 million in each of the next two years. To what does he owe this 127% raise? Here's a bit of what he did last season:

He had two goals, seven assists and a plus-1 rating in 51 games played.
He had 24% more minor penalties than anyone on the team, despite playing 25 fewer games than his closest competition in this category. In fact, he had the most penalties taken per sixty minutes of ice time of any defenseman in the NHL who played at least 20 games, the most penalties taken per sixty of any Cap, and the most minor penalties of anyone who played 51 or fewer games (the next closest was Andy Wozniewski who had ten fewer minors in three fewer games).
He saw his fight totals drop from 13 in 2005-06 to five in 2006-07 and four last season.
He had the worst Corsi Rating on the team, despite playing against the weakest competition.

To be fair, he did some good things in 2007-08, but I just don't see how it makes sense to sign a 28-year-old third-pairing (at best) defenseman with Erskine's "upside" to this deal at this time. Was there really a huge risk that he'd play himself into much more than a $1.25 million defenseman this season?

The bottom line is that Erskine wasn't even a good value last year at $537,500 - is he going to be one at more than twice that cost next year and the year after that?

Tweet Comment 25 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

The extension news made me throw up in my mouth, this made me actually vomit into my dinner. Thanks, GMGM.

by wittcap79 on Oct 23, 2008 9:19 PM EDT reply actions

Amen to your comments. You could also add that he has twice in the past week taken avoidable penalties to leave his team two men down.

This signing does not make sense at all unless he has the goods on GMGM. They will be overpaying a 6 or 7 so they can keep someone who is ready to make the jump in the minors.

Giving him that contract makes it all the harder to trade him since almost everyone is bumping up against the cap. If they waive him and send him to the minors, they will wind up with half his salary if they try to bring him back.

Maybe they don't think they can fit Morrrrissssonnnn or Schultz under the cap next year under any conditions.

by Old Bob on Oct 23, 2008 9:30 PM EDT reply actions

This is just horrible. Why??

by Stokley Rose on Oct 23, 2008 9:32 PM EDT reply actions

Lets not forget his play was the one that actually let to Poti's OT penalty vs the Flyers. His penalty didnt get called then Poti tripped up the Flyer and was called as a makeup call.

He is so not worth that type of money.

by TJ on Oct 23, 2008 9:33 PM EDT reply actions

This is more absurd than 3 shots in a 9 (ok, 7) minute power play.

by gary on Oct 23, 2008 9:40 PM EDT reply actions

Or will this explain the Caps not extending Brashear after this season?

by gary on Oct 23, 2008 9:43 PM EDT reply actions

I feel ill.

by Jimmy Jazz on Oct 23, 2008 9:58 PM EDT reply actions

My reaction to the signing...

http://accordionguy.blogware.com/Photos/2005/05/noooooooo.jpg

by CapsKremlin on Oct 23, 2008 9:58 PM EDT reply actions

Wow

that's all I got on this one...

Wow

by Puddin_an_Semin on Oct 23, 2008 10:08 PM EDT reply actions

My buddy Mike is going to start cutting himself when he hears this. Hard to say I blame him.

by Chris on Oct 23, 2008 10:16 PM EDT reply actions

I thought the extension was at his old rate, and that was fine. This amount of money is mind-boggling, though. Hope he's out gaining super powers or something.

by Hazardous on Oct 23, 2008 10:51 PM EDT reply actions

Insane. Almost incompetent.

by Tyler on Oct 23, 2008 11:32 PM EDT reply actions

"Incompetent" is a good word for it. I always thought GMGM dumb-lucked his way to the deals he's made recently... maybe...

by Hazardous on Oct 23, 2008 11:49 PM EDT reply actions

I actually feel that I like Erskine more than most people. I really think there's more to him than the dumb penalties and some middleweight fights others focus on. Toward the end of last season, he really showed some quality defensive instincts and early this year has addded a tiny bit of offensive daring.

That said, he clearly must have a compromising video of McPhee stashed away somewhere. In my world, a pretty fair salary is 700k and you are willing to go to 950k for him if you have cap space. He can maybe garner up to 1 or 1.1 mil, but you don't go there with the Caps' cap situation. 1.25 is very high side. All that is said without looking at salary comps around the league, so maybe I'm off base?

Anyway, I hope this gives him confidence to elevate his game, at least. I have a little faith that GMGM knows what he's up to, but I can't say this doesn't worry me.

by false_cause on Oct 24, 2008 12:00 AM EDT reply actions

So disappointing.

by erik on Oct 24, 2008 12:24 AM EDT reply actions

by Scott on Oct 24, 2008 1:48 AM EDT reply actions

WHAT THE HELL? This is completely irresponsible on GMGM's part. What is he thinking?

by breed16 on Oct 24, 2008 1:55 AM EDT reply actions

screw this team. they don't know what the hell they are doing. god they piss me off. This is just stupid. Why do that when you've got a bevy of prospects to come up and play those minutes over the next few years?

I'd have to disagree that they don't know what they're doing. McPhee and the rest of the front office have done a great job with the rebuild.

As for the "bevy of prospects", Alzner is the only one who's a sure thing and going to be ready soon. Lepisto has done well in the AHL and but has been inconsistent on the ice with NHL players. Godfrey's only played a few professional games and it's pretty unlikely a sixth round pick is going to be ready at age 20 or 21. Carlson is great prospect but he's at least a year away, realistically probably more like 1.5-2.5. Finley's never played a pro game, so he's not going to be in the NHL until 2010.

Right now the Caps are carrying six natural defensemen and when Alzner's ready that will give them seven, which is typical for the NHL. Erskine's contract is two years which is about the ETA for Godfrey, Finley, and Carlson.

Holding on to Erskine I understand. Getting him for two years I can understand. But at 1.25 million a season? That's the head scratcher.

by DMG on Oct 24, 2008 2:32 AM EDT reply actions

Holding on to Erskine I understand. Getting him for two years I can understand. But at 1.25 million a season? That's the head scratcher.

DMG, ftw.

by JP on Oct 24, 2008 6:29 AM EDT reply actions

When Tarik first posted that we gave Erskine a 2 year extension, I was prepared for it to be for as much as 800K per season. 1.25 is insane. Completely insane.

by Sombrero Guy on Oct 24, 2008 10:35 AM EDT reply actions

Granted that:
A) Low-balling young players is the nature of the beast when it comes to aribitration
and
B) Erskine was set to be unrestricted at the end of the season...

Doesn't it seem a little odd the Caps would argue for a $1.1 million salary for a top pairing defenseman this summer then turn around and give more than that to a less useful player?

by Hooks Orpik on Oct 24, 2008 10:49 AM EDT reply actions

ARGH!!!! WTF WAS GMGM THINKING!!!!!!

Seriously, I just don't get it. I would have been okay with it if it was around the 550K to 600K range, but 1.25M??? Ouch, I'm glad that Ted is willing to spend, but come on, let's spend that dough wisely please.

by Paul on Oct 24, 2008 1:43 PM EDT reply actions

Ersk couldn't even stick with the Islanders a couple of seasons ago - and none of us miss him all that much either. He isn't going to get suddenly twice as good at 28.

Lepiso may have question marks, but I'd rather take a chance on a guy like that who has a shot of being better and cheaper than Erskine. Unlike my poor team, yours has players like Green and prospects like Alzner. This wasn't a good deal.

by nightfly on Oct 24, 2008 5:13 PM EDT reply actions