The Seattle Kraken got an important bit of business out of the way this week, inking star centre Matty Beniers to a seven-year deal worth $49.98 million. The new contract keeps Beniers on the club’s books through his prime, at a manageable cap hit of $7.14 million.
The 21-year-old has logged parts of three seasons in Seattle since making the move from the NCAA. Tabbed with the second-overall pick in 2021, Beniers debuted with a strong 10-game showing in 2021-22, putting up nine points in his brief opening stint. He followed that up with a solid rookie campaign, putting up 24 goals and 57 points — and claiming the Calder Trophy in the process — as his Kraken earned their first playoff berth in franchise history.
His sophomore season was a different story, though, Beniers taking a step back with 15 goals and 37 points, and his club returning to life outside the playoff picture. Now, after a summer that’s seen Seattle make some key additions, most notably Cup champs Chandler Stephenson and Brandon Montour, the Kraken now have their No. 1 centre locked in for the foreseeable future.
But how exactly does the deal stack up to similar contracts around the league? Here’s a look at a few comparable deals handed out to young forwards coming off their entry-level contracts.
Matt Boldy, Minnesota Wild
Contract: Seven years, $49 million ($7-million AAV), signed in 2023
Amid a promising sophomore season in Minnesota, Boldy inked a seven-year, $49-million deal with the Wild in 2023, putting him on the books at a $7-million cap hit. Like Beniers, the young college hockey product had limited experience under his belt when signing his extension, though the situation was more extreme for Boldy, having played just a season and a half in Minnesota before signing long-term. Boldy finished his rookie year with roughly the same output as Beniers produced last season (15 goals, and just shy of 40 points). By the end of his sophomore season, he put up 31 goals and 63 points, a shade higher than Beniers posted in his own best season. The 23-year-old continued to progress in Year 1 of his new deal, posting 69 points in 75 games last season.
Dylan Cozens, Buffalo Sabres
Contract: Seven years, $49.7 million ($7.1 million AAV), signed in 2023
Perhaps a closer comparable would be Cozens, a fellow centre, who inked his own seven-year extension last year. Cozens signed on long-term with the Sabres midway through his second full NHL campaign, having played just half a season in the big leagues as a rookie. Through his first three seasons in Buffalo, the young pivot collected 48 goals and 112 total points, on par with Beniers’ production in Seattle to this point, and with the final two years of his entry-level pact following a similar production pattern as Boldy’s. In Year 1 of his extension, Cozens’ production dipped slightly, the 23-year-old putting up 18 goals and 47 points last season, after a 31-goal, 68-point effort a year prior.
If we rewind a bit further, we find a couple other young centremen who inked similar long-term deals, albeit under a different overall cap situation.
Clayton Keller, Arizona Coyotes (now: Utah Hockey Club)
Contract: Eight years, $57.2 million ($7.15 million AAV), signed in 2019
The context around Keller’s extension differed from Beniers’ in that the league’s salary cap was roughly $8 million lower. Still, the young then-Coyotes forward had followed somewhat of a similar path, coming from the NCAA, getting a few games in the big leagues before starting his NHL career for real the next year — when he did, Keller similarly put up a solid rookie effort (23 goals, 65 points) before taking a step back in Year 2 (with 14 goals and 47 points). He inked his long-term deal ahead of the final year of his ELC, with the Coyotes banking on his extension looking like a team-friendly one once Keller reached his prime. A few years into the deal, that approach has begun to bear fruit, with Keller putting up 70 goals and 162 points over the past two seasons, with four years left on his deal and the cap continuing to rise.
Nico Hischier, New Jersey Devils
Contract: Seven years, $50.75 million ($7.25-million AAV), signed in 2019
Hischier similarly signed ahead of the final year of his entry-level deal, after two full seasons in the league, and his extension came amid the same cap context as Keller’s. The 2017 No. 1 pick had somewhat similar numbers to Beniers through those first two seasons, producing at a 0.66 points-per-game clip before signing (99 points through 151 games), just a shade higher than Beniers’ 0.62 points per game (103 points through 167 games). Of course, Hischier wound up supplanted as the team’s No. 1 centre by Jack Hughes, who inked his own long-term extension in 2021, at a higher price point (eight years, $64 million, for an $8-million AAV), and soon proved to be worth the higher salary courtesy of a 99-point campaign in Year 1 of that deal.
If we zoom out a bit, we find a few other young, offensively gifted centres who signed long-term over the past few years at a higher cap hit than Beniers’.
Nick Suzuki, Montreal Canadiens
Contract: Eight years, $63 million ($7.88-million AAV), signed in 2021
The Canadiens captain inked his long-term deal in Montreal after two seasons with the team. The young pivot wasn’t necessarily dominant production-wise through those two seasons — collecting 82 points through 127 games to that point — but the glimpses of elite skill shown served as enough reason for the Canadiens to sign him long-term at a higher AAV. Also, crucially, the Canadiens were fresh off a run to the Stanley Cup Final when Suzuki signed his deal, their first appearance in the Final in decades, during which the young centreman led the team in post-season scoring with 16 points in 22 games. Through the first two years of his long-term deal, Suzuki has collected 59 goals and 143 total points.
Josh Norris, Ottawa Senators
Contract: Eight years, $63.6 million ($7.95-million AAV), signed in 2022
Norris’s extension with Ottawa came in a similar situation as Beniers’, the young forward signing at the conclusion of his entry-level deal, having suited up for 125 games at the NHL level (even fewer than Beniers’ 167) over parts of three seasons. But unlike Beniers, who saw his production dip in the season before he signed, Norris put together an exceptional offensive showing in the final year of his ELC, amassing 35 goals and 55 points, leading Ottawa in goals. The sterling numbers raised the price of his deal for the Senators, and earned Norris a higher AAV. Injuries have delayed his ability to truly build on that dominant 35-goal season, but the Senators pivot has collected 33 points in 58 games through the early years of his new deal.
With the new deal in tow, Beniers enters the 2024-25 season as Seattle’s highest-paid forward, and one of the club’s highest-paid players overall, the new pact solidifying him as a key member of the Kraken’s future. Should he continue to develop as a premier centre in the game as hoped, building off the promise he showed in his rookie campaign, the deal should be an easy one for the Kraken to stomach moving forward, especially as the cap continues to rise.