Sean Monahan is one of the rare Blue Jacket UFA signees that they have actually secured right at his market value - even if only for the short-term.
If we dive into the lower end of this list of contracts (link again here), there are two players at the $4.5m AAV level: Ryan O'Relly and Mikael Backlund.
O'Reilly was on that same Cup winning team as Brayden Schenn, though he currently plays for the Nashville Predators. He's entering year two of a four year contract, which will pay him through 2026-27. He gave the Preds great value last year, scoring 69 points, while playing in all 82 games.
Backlund signed a two-year extension with the Calgary Flames just before the start of last season. He promptly rewarded them with an underwhelming 39-point season, though he did play in all 82 games. He's also their captain, and it's somewhat unfair to rank him on his point output, because he's a strong two-way player.
All of this leads me to a former Flame, now Blue Jacket: Sean Monahan. The contract he just signed with the Blue Jackets, pays him like your average second line center in the NHL. Which, coincidentally, is exactly how he's produced throughout his NHL career.
Monahan has a career stat line of 244 goals and 538 points in 764 NHL games. That's a 0.70 point-per-game average; which he essentially mirrored last year, in a season split between Montreal and Winnipeg. He scored 26 goals and 59 points in a league-high 83 games - a 0.71 average.
These totals were good enough to place him 19th out of the 44 centers ranked by AAV on our search. His 26 goals had him 12th on that list. He also won 55% of his faceoffs. If you're still looking at the list, the funny thing about it was the average totals from last season (very top of the page, in blue).
Those 44 players averaged 20.7 goals, 29.8 assists, and 50.5 points. Sean Monahan's career averages are roughly 26g-32a-58pts. He'll be back alongside Johnny Gaudreau in Columbus, who was on his flank for the most productive seasons in his career.
Breaking it all down: his AAV is in the middle of the pack for second line centers - and so is his production. In fact, one could make the argument that, based on his career and the comparable contracts around him; he might be slightly underpaid.
"But what about his history of injuries?"
This may shock you: Since coming into the NHL, Sean Monahan has missed a total of 113 games. He's played in 764 out of a possible 877 games in 11 years (this includes the COVID-shortened 2020-21 season, and his extra game due to being traded last year). He averages around 72 games played per NHL season.
I'm not concerned about his injury history. Nor am I concerned about his AAV. The Salary cap just took a $4 million dollar jump. It's going to do so again next summer, and will keep climbing as the league's revenues continue to improve.
By the end of his term, Monahan will likely be a bottom-two line center. And, by the time we get there, he'll probably be paid accordingly, assuming the cap keeps rising. This contract is just fine, and we should stop pretending that it isn't.