Whitecloud signs a massive six year contract with Vegas

The Vegas Golden Knights have locked up 24 year old defenseman Zach Whitecloud to a massive six year contract worth over $16 million. 

Check it out:

Whitecloud's new deal carries a $2.75 million annual cap hit. Which, is fantastic but... six years for a guy who only has 72 games on his NHL resume? That seems like quite the commitment. Am I crazy here? Don't get me wrong, I think the kid is an absolute stud, but this is like proposing to a girl after the first kiss...

Whitecloud, a native of Brandon, Manitoba, has two goals and 14 points in 72 career games for the Golden Knights. He signed with the team as an undrafted free agent in the 2018 offseason.

With Whitecloud under contract for six more seasons, the Golden Knights have their top four defence core pretty much locked down for the foreseeable future. Alex Pietrangelo is on a six year deal, Alec Martinez is on a three year deal and Shea Theodore is on a four year deal. Now, I'm not saying that there's anything wrong with locking up your top players long-term but if I'm Vegas I'd be concerned about taking potential spots away from up and coming players who may end up proving themselves to be more worth. I suppose the failsafe against that though is that Whitecloud in particular is on a fairly low salary. If someone like Golden Knights sophomore Nic Hague ends up surpassing Whitecloud on the depth chart in the coming seasons, it's not such a big deal to play Whitecloud lower down in the lineup. After all, a solid, third pairing shutdown guy is worth $2.75 million all day long.

Regardless of your feelings on the deal though, you have to feel good for Whitecloud. This is a kid who stayed home in Manitoba to play junior hockey and then played his heart out for a small college program at Bemidji State and went undrafted through seven rounds at the 2017 NHL Entry Draft. The Golden Knights took a chance on him and look at him now. He's an NHLer with a guaranteed $16.5 million contract. Atta boy, Zach!