Quoting: linehan10
Too many tears for a Sunday. You should’ve just said he’s a great player
Just for fun, here's every 5+ year deal for a forward that was 32 years or older since 2013:
-Vincent Lecavalier 5x$4.5M by Philly on 7/2/13 - Traded with full retention (along with Luke Schenn) for Jordan Weal & a 3rd halfway through the deal; retired at the end of the 3rd year of the deal. Played 175 total games with 75 points under that deal.
-Marian Gaborik 7x$4.875M by LA on 6/26/14 - Wandered into LTIRetirement after year 4; was traded to Ottawa for 16 games before he retired. Grand total of 225 games and 111 points before riding off into the sunset.
-Mike Cammalleri 5x$5M by NJ on 7/1/14 - Bought out after 3 seasons, played 171 games and put up 51-60-111 in Jersey before being bought out. Split one more season between LA & Edmonton before retiring.
-David Backes 5x$6M by Boston on 7/1/16 - Traded 25% retained with a 1st and a recent 2nd round pick for Ondrej Kase halfway through his 4th season in Boston. 217 GP, put up 39-55-94 in that time. The first turned into Jacob Perrault, for what it's worth.
-Frans Nielsen 6x$5.25M by Detroit on 7/1/16 - bought out after year 5, and I don't think it's crazy to say that the only reason he lasted that long was Detroit didn't need to worry about that cap hit as a rebuilder. 291 GP, 48-76-124 in that time.
5 players in the last 10 offseasons signed 5+ year UFA deals the summer before their age-32 seasons. None of the 5 finished the contract with their original team - two were fully bought out and the other 3 were traded with retention before the end of the deal. Only 3 total 20-goal seasons and 3 seasons of more than 40 points from these 5 players over a combined 28 years and $143.125M worth of contracts.
In the interest of fully doing the research, the only other contracts signed by over-32 players with that kind of term since 2016 have been extensions - Blake Wheeler signed 5x$8.25M in September 2018, and Nicklas Backstrom signed 5x$9.2M in January 2020. Wheeler has actually been the outlier - he's been basically a PPG player since signing, with 262 points in 268 games. Backstrom also hasn't been bad when he's been on the ice since then - 21-63-84 in 102 GP since signing the deal. He missed 35 games this year, though, and is in line to miss a ton more next year. It's going to be hard to find value in that deal going forward.