Nick Schmaltz signs deal worth over $40 million in spite of major injury.

A young National Hockey League talent has just cashed in big time.

According to a breaking news report from Arizona Coyoyes insider Craig Morgan of The Athletic, the Arizona Coyotes have come to terms on a brand new deal for recently acquired forward Nick Schmaltz. Initially Morgan tentatively reported that the deal had been agreed upon but now he is reporting the deal as official citing information from a source within the National Hockey League. 

It's a surprising move from the Arizona Coyotes if only because of the timing of the announcement. Schmaltz has been completely out of action for all of 2019 after he suffered a serious knee injury back in December of 2018. You would think that a player who has not played now in over 3 months, especially when coming off a major injury, would need to show some progress in his recovery before getting a mega contract from his team, but the Coyotes appear to be very confident. To be fair here Schmaltz has reportedly resumed skating after going through some intense rehab with the Coyotes training staff so there is little doubt that the Coyotes have a good grip on which direction he is headed in.

Schmaltz of course was acquired by the Coyotes  in the middle of the this current NHL regular season in a trade with the Chicago Blackhawks and he immediately made his impact on the Coyotes once he joined their roster. Although he only appeared in 17 games for them prior to his knee injury he would record 5 goals and 9 assists for a total of 14 points over those games, adding just 2 penalty minutes along the way. It is obvious that during that short length of time Schmaltz very much endeared himself to the Coyotes organization and Morgan has made that much clear.

According to Morgan Schmaltz gave the Coyotes power play unit something it has not had for a very long time, a poised and skilled presence on the half wall. Additionally it was a power play unit that operated at 20% efficiency when he was in the line up and it is for those reasons that the Coyotes have given him a long term deal.

How long?

Well according to Morgan this is going to be a massive 7 year deal that will pay him a whopping $5.85 million per season, or just a hair under $41 million total over the length of the contract.

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