The New York Islanders took an important step on Wednesday, signing Kyle Okposo to a new 5-year deal. Okposo was scheduled to become a restricted free agent on July 1st, The deal is reportedly worth $14 million over the course of the deal, which works out to be a $2.8 million cap hit per season, which could turn out to be quite the bargain of a deal, if he realizes most of his potential in the next five seasons.
The 2011 season was not a highlight in Okposo's career, as it began on the shelf after suffering a major shoulder injury, which required surgery, so he would miss the entire 2010 portion of the season, returning in January. In total, Okposo's season was limited to 38 games, where he only picked up 20 points (5 goals and 15 assists).
In the draft, he was eventually picked up in the second waiver draft and was a decent pick-up, but recovering from a major shoulder injury was going to hamper his return to a positive scoring role.
With a low cap hit at $2.8 million, I think expectations have been tempered to a certain degree, which may work out better for Okposo in the long run. He does fit in the mould of the power forward and a solid Summer of working out and getting back to 100% should go a long way into rebuilding his game into one of a player that opposing team's would focus their top defensive pairing against. The low cap hit is also very beneficial to the club, as the Islanders are still considered to be a budget team and signing a player with good potential to a long-term deal for reasonable money is a no-brainer. If anything was to go sour in this relationship, that deal would also be very easy to move, since there is still a lot of potential to reach.
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