Canadiens' Cole Caufield's new contract is a win for both sides

On Monday, the Montreal Canadiens signed young RFA winger Cole Caufield to an eight-year contract extension worth $7.85 million per season.

Just a couple hours later, Frank Seravalli and Tyler Yaremchuk got together for the first Daily Faceoff Live show of the week. Naturally, the Caufield deal was the top story.

Here’s what Seravalli and Yaremchuk had to say about Monday’s massive news out of Montreal.

Tyler Yaremchuk: Earlier this morning, it was announced that the Canadiens have locked up their future star winger Cole Caufield. I mean, the guy has scored at a nearly 40 goals per 82 game pace in his young NHL career, but with injuries and other things, he hasn’t hit the 150-game mark yet. Still, the Habs go and give him an eight-year deal worth $7.85 million, just a hair below the AAV they gave their captain, Nick Suzuki. My take on it, Frank, is I love when teams do this. We know the cap will eventually start jumping up a lot every summer and that’ll just make deals like Caufield’s and Suzuki’s more and more of, as you’d say, bar-goons for the Habs.

Frank Seravalli: Yeah, I love this deal. What was so fascinating to me, Tyler, was to see the push and pull on social media. Tweet the terms of the deal, eight years x $7.85, and all of a sudden, everyone’s exploding. This is the most bipolar contract extension I’ve ever seen. Half of the audience is saying, ‘What an overpayment for this little guy who’s been injured already to this point in his NHL career,’ and the other half are saying, ‘This is an absolute steal, a team-friendly deal.’

It’s so weird to see the two poles, because you’d think, well, if that is indeed the case of both these sides saying two opposite things, then does that mean that the Montreal Canadiens got it right? Not only do I think they got it right, I think it’s an absolute home run for the Habs. You consider where this cap is heading, we’re going to be playing at $100 million a year salary cap before this deal is halfway old. You’ve now purchased the very best years of Cole Caufield’s career, from age 22 to essentially 30, maybe he turns 31 by the end of it. That’s a great buy for a guy who has produced the way he has, particularly since Marty St. Louis took over.

Watch the full episode here: