Tomorrow is the final day for NHL teams to hand out contracts with eight-year terms as the league’s new collective bargaining agreement will fully kick in.

We’ve seen some teams take advantage of this in the past few weeks, with the Vancouver Canucks signing Zeev Buium to an eight-year deal with an AAV of $9.38 million, committing a total of $75.04 million to a player who has appeared in just 76 career NHL games.

The new trend is that teams are trying to get out ahead of things with young players in hopes that the salary cap will continue to rise by $8 million or more every offseason and these contracts will turn into bargains in a few years.

The Boston Bruins also did this with Fraser Minten Monday, who after his rookie season got a seven-year deal worth a total of $50.4 million.

I said at the time that the Minten deal was an interesting comparable for the Edmonton Oilers and Matt Savoie.

Both players are currently 22-years-old and coming off their first full seasons in the league. They also had almost identical stat lines last season, with Savoie scoring one more goal and one more assist than Minten.

I got some pushback on the idea that the Oilers would be wise to try and lock up Savoie to a long-term deal now as opposed to waiting for next summer when he is a restricted free agent.

I understand why some fans might be hesitant to give a player with just one year under his belt a........

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