Back in September of 2012, the current collective bargaining agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA was signed and put into effect. Since then, 11 NHL defensemen have signed a contract with an average annual value north of ten percent of the salary cap at the time of the signing. Jacob Trouba recently fell short of joining them, but there are still three big name defenders not currently under contract that may make the jump. Let’s explore whether any, or all of them, have the statistical profile to garner such a raise.
First of all, we need to learn what makes a ten percent defenseman.