New York Islanders: Unpacking Details of Jordan Eberle Contract

The New York Islanders have extended pending unrestricted free agent Jordan Eberle to a five-year deal. What else can we learn from Eberle’s deal?

On Friday, the New York Islanders extended Jordan Eberle with a five-year $27.5 million contract extension. Before the announcement of the signing, I was sure Jordan Eberle was going to walk in free agency. Clearly, the Islanders didn’t feel like they could let Eberle walk.

It makes sense. The Islanders didn’t have much strength down the right-wing even with Eberle in the lineup. They’d certainly have less without him in the lineup.

Now that the dust has settled on the news of the signing, details about Jordan Eberle’s deal have emerged. So outside of the term and AAV, what else did Jordan Eberle get in his extension with the New York Islanders?

Term and AAV

We know that the deal is for five years. Eberle just turned 29-years-old this May, meaning that he’ll only turn 34-years-old at the end of his extension with the Islanders. To put that into perspective, Ladd is 33 years old and is still on the books for four years.

Relatively speaking, the Islanders won’t be stuck with an older depreciating asset with term still left on his deal.

Again, Eberle’s deal carries a $5.5 million AAV. That’s a $500,000 savings on his last deal signed with the Edmonton Oilers. Sure, Eberle had a bad year with 37 points in 78 games last season. But that’s the first time the RW has hit less than 50 points in almost a full season of play in his career.

Eberle’s production in 2018-19 was not a normal return. He’ll be back. Getting him on a lower cap hit was and will be fantastic.

Eberle’s deal is almost entirely salaried, with only two million in signing bonus and all of that bonus money comes in year one.

*Dollars are in millions
**Information comes from CapFriendly

That means a few things. If you look at the later years of the deal the total salary is up to two million less than his cap hit. A team looking to make the cap floor could use his high cap hit but lower actual salary to make the floor but actually shell out less money.

That’s why the Coyotes picked up the Marian Hossa contract. Hossa might count for $5.275 million on the cap, but the Coyotes are actually paying him $1 million.

The fact that Eberle’s deal isn’t loaded with signing bonus money like John Tavares’s contract, means that Eberle’s deal isn’t buyout proof.

Contract Details

By running CapFriendly’s buyout calculator on Eberle’s deal you can see that in year three, the Islanders can get significant cap savings. Like $5.3 million in savings for that year.

*All dollar amounts are in millions
**B/O cap hit = cap hit after the buy out

Hopefully, it never gets to a buyout. But if the Islanders need a way out, they’ll have it.

Along with a great AAV and that five-year term, Eberle got some trade protection from the Islanders. In the first two years of the deal, Eberle gets a full no-trade clause. In the last three years that trade protection gets downgraded to a modified no-trade clause with a 16 team no-trade list.

That’s a good amount of trade protection, but considering the length of the deal and the AAV it’s a fair compromise to make on the part of the Islanders.

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This was a great deal from Lou Lamoriello. He got to keep the only top-six right-wing talent he already had and got him for less. He’s also given the New York Islanders some flexibility if it doesn’t work out as planned.