J.T. Compher Jersey Card

Some of the RFA deals this summer have been reasonable, a few have been head-scratchers in terms of why they're just a tad too high, and pundits still expect those that are left to break the bank.

J.T. Compher falls in the second category now that the Colorado Avalanche have signed him to a four-year extension worth $14M in total, or $3.5M per season against the salary cap.

Avs GM Joe Sakic mentions:

J.T. has been one of our most versatile forwards over the past two years. He plays on our power play, kills penalties and has played up and down our lineup. He has scored some big goals late in games and we are counting on him to have an even more expanded role moving forward. We are excited to have him under contract for the next four seasons.

Some things are definitely true in there: Compher has, indeed, completed his second full NHL season, his third straight year in the NHL (he only suited up for 21 games in 2016-17). And he did spend 1:53 of every game killing penalties, and 3:07 on the powerplay (on a team that boasted offensive talent like Mikko Rantanen, Gabriel Landeskog, Nathan MacKinnon and Tyson Barrie), and still only finished with 16 goals, 16 assists and 32 points in 66 games in 2018-19. Not on the powerplay... in total.

Granted, the 2013 second-rounder is just 24 years old, but seven players in his draft year already have 200 career points (one of them, Seth Jones, is a defenseman) while Compher has 60. But he did beat out Alex Kerfoot for the third-line centre job in Colorado, so there's that.

It's just that his output, at best, warranted a $2.5M cap hit - even if only on a two- or three-year bridge deal - not nearly double that. In terms of comparables, two players signed around roughly the same time as him: Kasperi Kapanen (23 years old) and Andreas Johnsson (24) with the Toronto Maple Leafs; Kapanen had 20 goals and 44 points last year and signed for $3.2M for three years, and Johnsson had 20 goals and 43 points, signing at $3.4M for four years. Better production, lower cap hits, in a city where they pay 10% more taxes.

Here he is sporting the Avs' white (away) uniform, on card #RM-JC from Upper Deck's 2017-18 Series 2 set and Rookie Materials sub-set:

It features a burgundy jersey swatch with unclear origins if you are just going by the back of the card:

We now know these as "event-worn", but sometimes UD uses vague language to try to trick collectors into thinking they've got something more special than it actually is.