Sportsnet’s Nick Kypreos has the breakdown of the offer sheet which the Philadelphia Flyers have agreed to with Shea Weber, and as expected, it puts the bulk of the money up-front, totaling $110 million over 14 seasons, but with $80 million of that coming in the first six:
#Preds Weber offer sheet from #Flyers. 1st 4 yrs 1M salary+13M sb; yrs 5-6 4M sal+ 8Msb; yrs 7-10 6M sal; year 11 3M sal; last 3 yrs 1M sal
Let’s take a look at the year-by-year breakdown and the implications for a budget-driven Nashville Predators team…
So here’s the breakdown, with all values in millions of dollars:
| Season | Signing Bonus | Salary |
| 2012-2013 | 13 | 1 |
| 2013-2014 | 13 | 1 |
| 2014-2015 | 13 | 1 |
| 2015-2016 | 13 | 1 |
| 2016-2017 | 8 | 4 |
| 2017-2018 | 8 | 4 |
| 2018-2019 | 6 | |
| 2019-2020 | 6 | |
| 2020-2021 | 6 | |
| 2021-2022 | 6 | |
| 2022-2023 | 3 | |
| 2023-2024 | 1 | |
| 2024-2025 | 1 | |
| 2025-2026 | 1 |
The trick here is that the Signing Bonus can be payable on July 1, so for example, on whatever day this drama concludes (sometime in the next 7 days), Shea might get that first $13 million, then play the 2012-2013 season for a $1 million salary. Then, on July 1 2013, he could get the next $13 million bonus, so in the first 12 months of the contract, that’s $27 million, quite a lot for the Preds to handle.
Then they get to rinse & repeat in 2014, and 2015. Things don’t slow down much over the next two years, either, so for the next several seasons the Preds would have to fork out a truckload of cash.
But if the talk about spending closer to the cap is to be believed, and especially in light of having already lost Ryan Suter, the Predators should be prepared to meet these demands, right?
Right?
UPDATE: The Preds have issued the following statement from David Poile:
“We are in receipt of the offer sheet signed between the Philadelphia Flyers and Shea Weber. Under the rules pertaining to an offer sheet, the Predators have one week to decide whether to match or accept the compensation. We have stated previously that, should a team enter into an offer sheet with Shea, our intention would be to match and retain Shea. Our ownership has provided us with the necessary resources to build a Stanley Cup-winning team. Due to the complexity of the offer sheet, we will take the appropriate time to review and evaluate it and all of its ramifications in order to make the best decision for the Predators in both the short and long-term.
“We do not anticipate any further comments on this situation until we make our decision within the next seven days.”