HockeyComparables.com is a project to predict upcoming contracts based on comparable deals.

The projections for each player are based on using past contracts from players of a similar age, experience, production and usage, in order to take a shot at predicting upcoming contracts.

For defensemen, ice time and production are the main stats used, while goaltender projections will largely rely on games played and save percentage. The stats used are from two categories for each player: their contract year and their career overall.

For forwards, a payment rate (based on cost per point) is established, finding the middle ground between their 82-game points pace from their contract year, and their 82-game points pace over their entire career.

For example, if a listed comparable player had a points-per-82 pace of 60 points in their signing year, and a career points-per-82 pace of 50 points, that mid point would be 55. If that player’s deal carried a $6 million cap hit, in order to find the payment rate, we’d divide the cap hit by the production mid point (6 divided by 55), to get 0.109, then multiply it by 10, to list it the payment rate as 1.09.

If the comparable player signed a deal in a previous year, we’d adjust the deal to be applicable to an $83.5M cap hit, based on the percentage of cap space used to sign that player under the previous cap. We can then take that player’s established payment rate, and apply it to the player who we’re attempting to project a contract for, using their production mid-point between Signing Year Points-Per-82 and Career Points-Per-82 to create a 1-for-1 projection (listed in the far right column of any table in Top-50 Free Agent articles). With enough of these comparable projections done for each player, it becomes easier to get a sense of their likely contract on any given term.

Any age for a comparable player listed is based on how old a player was by Dec. 31 of the first season of their contract.