The Washington Capitals have signed forward Tom Wilson to a 7-year $6.5 million AAV extension.  Wilson is well known in the NHL for his intangibles and physical presence on the ice, which are definitely core factors in Washington’s valuation of him, potentially, as their next Captain after Ovechkin’s eventual retirement. Beyond that we are going to get into a little bit of whether or not Wilson’s on Ice performance is going to look great against this contract by the time this contract expires in his age 37 season. 

On the offensive side, Wilson has been consistent in his production. Over the past four seasons, Wilson has posted around 0.67 PPG, putting him right beneath a star level producer who plays a top six role.  When looking at his GAR and SPAR analytics, Wilson has been a mixed bag on both ends of the ice; however, he has been more consistent defensively over the duration of his career.  At his best, Wilson is a 13.3 GAR 4.6 SPAR player, but at his worst he’s a -0.8 GAR and -0.3 SPAR player.  Realistically, Wilson’s true value lies closer to his median, which is 2.2 SPAR. This puts his on ice analytics value at about $4 million per season.  Factoring that in these stats, I would say Washington is paying $2.5 million for his intangibles, and based on his cup run in 2018 and his intimidation factor, Washington can justify this contract, even if it runs a little bit longer than Wilson will probably be productive for.