Adam Fox, the king of hockey tactics and extending the zone

Yesterday the Bruins announced their extension of defenseman Charlie McAvoy to an eight year, $9.5 million extension. McAvoy, 24, got $500k more per season than Cale Makar in Colorado, who is just 22 years old. The McAvoy contract serves as the floor for the new Adam Fox contract, as he will also be 24 when he is up for an extension.

Fox is better than McAvoy, I don’t think many would argue that. Fox has better impacts, better scoring numbers, and has that pesky Norris Trophy already. The other important factor is that Fox won the Norris despite playing on whatever mess the Rangers were last season. McAvoy, again a great defenseman, had the benefit of the Bruins behind him.

The Rangers are going to be locking Adam Fox up for eight years on his new contract. Currently Evolving-Hockey’s contract projections have him getting eight years at $8.2 million, but those numbers were from prior to the 2021 offseason. They will be updated, and Fox will come in higher.

The question is whether or not Fox thinks he should be the highest paid defenseman in the NHL. That honor goes to the wonderful Erik Karlsson contract, which expires sometime in the next 10 years or so. Fox, unlike Karlsson, has a few RFA years to burn in his new contract. That plays against him. An eight year deal would be an even split of four RFA years and 4 UFA years. If Fox wants to be the highest paid NHL defenseman, he might need to wait until his third contract.

That said, Adam Fox will likely get at least $10 million over eight years on his new contract. Even that might be considered a home town discount. The Long Island native would be worth every penny of that $10 million. If you’re hoping for under, then perhaps managing expectations is required.

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