Senators hand an 8-year mega-extension to a defenseman who has played only 77 games

The Ottawa Senators have announced an extension of 21-year-old defenseman Jake Sanderson. Sanderson has a year left on his Entry Level contract at $925,000. After the 2023-24 season, Sanderson's new deal will kick in, paying him a whopping $8.05 million for each of the following 8 years.

So what makes Sanderson so good that the Sens think he's worth more money than Morgan Rielly? The answer is unclear. Sanderson only has 77 NHL games under his belt. In those games, he scored 4 goals and 32 points. He gave the puck away more often than he took it from opponents and only threw 40 hits. In terms of fancy stats, Corsi, Fenwick, shots for and against, Sanderson sat below 50% in all categories. I tried to check his playoff stats, but he doesn't appear to have any. Shocker, I know.

To his credit, Sanderson's 77 games played last year was the most among Senators defensemen. That counts for something I guess. No matter which way you look at it, Pierre Dorion is taking a massive risk with this deal. If Sanderson becomes the number 1 defenseman he was drafted to be, Dorion looks fine here. If not, he's just signed an albatross of a contract. For a defenseman who's played just 1 season, albeit a fairly promising one. A bridge deal would have made more sense here.