Adam Larsson got paid decent, but not great, money over the weekend, and plenty of term. The reasoning behind it, though, is a little hazy.

Obviously, you don't want to part ways with a former No. 4 pick who is now just 22 years old, but if you had a redraft of the 2011 Entry Draft, Larsson might not be in your top 10. He's certainly not fourth overall. And this extension kicks in at a time when his career seems to be at its lowest point in a lot of ways.

He got what he got — $4.167 million AAV over six years — because that's what most young defensemen in the league get these days. Sure, the Devils were a shambling disaster last season, but Larsson wasn't really a bright spot, which seems like a problem for a guy you just extended for $25 million. He didn't really get it because he earned it.

Starting around the end of the 2011-12 season, most promising young defensemen in the league who had contracts coming up started signing long-term for relatively short money in about the range where Larsson now lands. This makes a lot of sense for both parties because players felt like they were getting good paydays and solid job security, while teams were banking on getting long-term value from those contracts. This, in short, started to replace bridge contracts for this specific type of player.

It started with Marc-Edouard Vlasic re-upping in San Jose, then continuing through the 2013 offseason with Ryan McDonagh, then Justin Faulk toward the end of 2013-14, then a bunch more that summer and into this past season. Here's a list of the more notable contracts of this type signed in the past few summers:

View photos Yahoo Sports More

Now, it must be said that the value of Vlasic's $4.25 million, which started in 2013-14, is more like $4.72 million in today's money, but teams and players alike seem not to really think of it that way (even though they should). As a result, that was the baseline for just about all these contracts going forward. For the most part, teams have been willing to give up the extra year for a little more cost certainty.

[Yahoo Sports Fantasy Football: Sign up and join a league today!]

And you also have to keep in mind that RFA years, of which Vlasic had none remaining, are generally cheaper than UFA years. This means that those giving up fewer UFA years will necessarily see their dollar values depressed. Larsson gives up three years of unrestricted free agency eligibility, meaning half his contract is still RFA, which is why his dollar value is so low.

But what you'll also notice about that list of defensemen who are now paid in roughly the same category as Larsson is, “Hey, they're all a lot better than him.”

Part of that, I think, is that most of them have some help. Faulk played with Andrej Sekera until the latter was traded. Brodie plays with Mark Giordano until Giordano injured himself. Stralman plays with Victor Hedman. Vlasic plays with the underrated Justin Braun. Brodin plays with Ryan Suter. Jake Muzzin obviously plays with Drew Doughty. That all helps a guy look better than he is, even if he's really good himself, and all these guys appear to be just that.

(Yes, yes, Ryan McDonagh, well, lugs Dan Girardi up and down the ice. Exceptions to every rule, etc.)

Larsson doesn't really have that luxury. In 2013-14, he played a lot with Eric Gelinas, who, while goodish, was also just 22 and not really a sort of stable option. This year, with Mark Fayne headed off to Edmonton, he was paired with Andy Greene. That pairing failed to recapture the possession-driving magic of Fayne/Greene the season before. Larsson, by some measures, had the worst year of his career as a consequence.

Story continues