In the 2011-12 playoffs Mike Green had 4 points in 14 games and only 2 power play points. He was able to lace up for only 32 regular season games and scored only 7 points. The year before that he had 49 regular season games played and mustered only 24 points. So what in god’s name warrants a new $6 million per year contract from the Washington Capitals?

What made George McPhee, Washington Capitals GM, sign the 26-year-old to a three-year, $18.25 million contract extension, came down to multiple of factors.

One of the reasons why Green got 6 million a year, and perhaps most importantly, is the market, specifically the signings of Dennis Wideman to a five-year deal worth $26.5 million in Calgary and the Jason Garrison contract of 6 years worth $27.6 million in Vancouver. If you can justify the Jason Garrison contract you can certainly justify Green’s. Green is two years removed from having Erik Karlsson numbers. Karlssson inked a seven-year deal with AAC worth $6.5 million. So what argument was McPhee going to use to cheapen Green’s contract? He would most definitely get that or more in an arbitration case. Keep in mind that this is not a lifetime deal – it is for three years at a market price for a player that can, and has, put up 70 points from the back-end. A no-brainer move to me, considering the Capitals still have over 10 million in CAP space.

The second reason is that Green’s play has evolved.

Player Name Corsi ON .+- QoC Mathieu perreault 11.54 -0.058 Alexander Semin 5.21 -0.02 Mike Green 4.45 -0.007 Nicklas Backstrom 3.76 -0.029 Dennis Wideman -1.09 -0.017

We can see here that Mike Green ranked 3rd in Corsi ON stat according to behindthenet.ca. This means he is a positive influence when on the ice. A very interesting thing to note is that he was also a plus-5 during the playoffs. That was good for 3rd on the team. If one is to argue his defensive qualities and that he is a soft player, I would retort that in no way are the Washington Capitals paying Green $6 million to play defense. What you cannot argue is that his defensive game has improved. The offensive numbers are down across the board for all Capitals players the past two seasons and of course Green was no exception.

The third reason why this contract happened is because of the new coach – Adam Oates. Simply, they need to restart the engine on the Capitals power play and Oates is the man to do it. “I used Mike’s footage the last couple years in New Jersey showing the D how to corral the puck, move a puck and have the poise back there,” Oates said via washingtontimes.com. The new coach did wonders to fix the power play issues of the NJ Devils. He has much better talent to work with the Capitals organization.

Make no mistake that this is a good singing for the Capitals. Worst case scenario Green does no less than he has in the past two years. The Capitals were still a playoff team and you can part ways after 3 years if things go sour. What about the upside? If Oates can just get Green to score 30 power play points and have Mike flirt with 50-60 points, who knows what Washington’s ceiling would become? Who would laugh then? Remember that you have to compare Green’s contract to what is out there right now. The market pays, and it pays big, for a puck-moving defenseman. Keep your head up, Caps fans, McPhee isn’t known for handing out bad contracts and this one is no different.