The morning of August 6th, the Islanders crossed off “objective #1” on their offseason checklist by resigning shutdown defenseman Adam Pelech. The 26-year-old star has been vital to the Islanders’ success ever since he became a full-time NHLer in 2016. This past season he tallied 14 points (4G, 10A), 66 hits, 25 takeaways, and a +/- score of 15 in 56 games played.
Yesterday Pelech inked the 8-year deal worth 46 million in total with an AAV of 5.75. Even though 8 years is too much for a player who is about to turn 27 in 9 days, this is still a great contract. Getting a player of Pelech’s skill on a 5.75 million per year deal is exceptional. That isn’t even taking into consideration how the market for defensemen has spiked greatly this offseason. Seth Jones, Zach Werenski, Cale Makar, and Darnell Nurse all received contracts that included an annual salary north of 9 million dollars.
With this contract, Lou Lamoriello continues to show why he’s one of the best general managers in the entire NHL. Resigning the first-line defenseman and arguably your best D-man all together to a very affordable dollar total on a long-term contract is spectacular.
Even though New York hasn’t had such an exciting offseason in terms of signings, retaining Pelech was a crucial thing this front office needed to get done before the start of the season. Even though there aren’t any new faces headed to New York, at least not yet, Islanders fans should be very happy that the dominant lefty Adam Pelech will continue to call Long Island his home.
Photo By: Bruce Bennett
