There’s no reason not to sign a 24 year old winger with a great future ahead of him to a 6 year contract. Particularly when he’s the only young winger we have who is producing at a regular pace. Short contracts are for aging players or for players you’re unsure of what you’re getting, Neal is not in either category.

It’s not like we’re adding a $5mil guy. He’s getting a $2.175mil raise. Yes the money has to come from somewhere. But it’s not $5mil we need to conjure out of thin air. Replace someone like Kennedy with Tangradi or another lower-salary guy and you’re almost there.

Sid gets whatever Sid wants, regardless of how long he has been out. If I were a gambling man I’d say his salary stays the same.

With the year Geno has been having I’d almost say the same for him. Hopefully he’ll once again settle for whatever Crosby is getting.

Staal will be in for a raise. I’d guess somewhere in the $5-6mil range (or more, shudder).

My guess is come crunch time, which is when Staal needs a raise raise as I reckon they’ll find the money for Neal with minor tweaking, one of Martin, Michalek or Orpik will be gone and replaced by a low salary Despres and/or Morrow. But that should work itself out just fine.

Panic mode is when Letang needs a $3-5 mil raise, but I’m not even going to speculate on what the team looks like so far into the future.