On Saturday, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported that the Carolina Hurricanes and restricted free agent Seth Jarvis have reached a unique agreement on an eight-year deal worth $63.8 million.
The unique part of the deal is not the huge amount of cash the soon-to-be fourth-year player will be getting paid: it’s the structure of how he’ll be paid.
The 22-year-old will be one of the first players in the NHL to have a cap hit lower than the usual average annual value because he will have parts of his salary deferred, Seravalli reported.
It is unknown just how much money or which year the money is deferred, Seravalli added, but he said Jarvis has a signing bonus owed on July 1, 2032, just one day after his contract is set to expire.
In the recent salary cap era, dividing the total amount of money a player will receive by the number of years they signed for to reach the average annual value is common. If this were the case, the Hurricanes would be putting $7.9 million towards the salary cap per season for Jarvis, but with his deferred contract, they will save $400,000 a year, with Jarvis making $7.5 million per year, Seravalli noted.
Although the structure is a bit unusual, Seravalli mentions that deferred payments are allowed per the Collective Bargaining Agreement, but Carolina will be the first team to make the jump.
Seravalli added that both the NHL Players Association and NHL’s Central Registry had to sign off on the structure before Jarvis and the Hurricanes could agree to any terms. Additionally, before agreeing to any terms, Jarvis and his agent, Gerry Johannson, had to sift through the deal’s risk factors, including the possibility of a buyout or trade.