The defenseman took a bridge deal with the Washington Capitals following his sophomore season.
The Washington Capitals re-signed defenseman Martin Fehervary to a three-year contract on Tuesday, which carries a $2.68M cap hit.
While all of our designated RFAs from the Top-50 Free Agents are receiving a projection article for their upcoming contract, Fehervary signed his deal before the projection was released. So instead, we’ll take a look at comparable contracts to evaluate how the deal looks for the Capitals, and whether it carries fair value.
Player Overview
Selected 46th in the 2018 NHL Draft, Martin Fehervary made the jump to North America in 2019.
From there, the defenseman spent the majority of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 seasons in the AHL, playing with the Hershey Bears. By the 2021-22 season though, Fehervary earned a role with the Washington Capitals and went on to play 79 games with the team in his rookie season. The defender was already playing nearly 20 minutes per game, and even eared a single fifth-place Calder Trophy vote.
This year, Fehervary continued to play a big role on Washington’s blue line. He played in a very defensive role and faced the second-highest quality of competition of any defenseman on the team, according to Hockey Abstract.
Comparables
Below, we’ll take a look at contracts of different lengths for defensemen with around the same NHL experience and stats, to analyze Fehervary’s deal. The comparables will include players who played the first year of their contract (min. $2M cap hit) between 22 and to 26 years old, from 2016 onwards.
Note: All ages listed are related to how old the player was by Dec. 31 in the first year of their contract.
8 YEARS
An eight-year deal was extremely unlikely for Fehervary, and you rarely see that length of a contract of a defenseman with his age and experience.
| Player | Age | First Year of Contract | Signing Year P/82 | Career P/82 | Signing Year TOI | Career TOI | Contract | On $83.5M Cap Hit |
| Martin Fehervary | 24 | 2023 | 20 (67GP) | 18 (152GP) | 20:00 | 19:40 | ||
| Thomas Chabot | 23 | 2020 | 64 (70GP) | 49 (134GP) | 24:17 | 20:58 | $8.00M 8 years | $8.20M 8 years |
| Mike Matheson | 24 | 2018 | 17 (81GP) | 17 (84GP) | 21:03 | 20:56 | $4.88M 8 years | $5.13M 8 years |
| *Mikey Anderson | 24 | 2023 | 19 (55GP) | 16 (172GP) | 21:49 | 20:55 | $4.13M 8 years | $4.13M 8 years |
While he never would’ve earned Chabot money, there are two decent comparables in Matheson and Anderson, which would’ve put Fehervary between a range of $4.13M to $5.13M on an eight-year deal. It’s hard to firgure out which deal he’d be most comparable to, but Anderson’s $4.13 per-year deal was by far the most recent contract and perhaps the best comp as a result.
7 YEARS
While there are more players around Fehervary’s age who signed seven-year deals, again, it was very unlikely he’d get that term.
| Player | Age | First Year of Contract | Signing Year P/82 | Career P/82 | Signing Year TOI | Career TOI | Contract | On $83.5M Cap Hit |
| Martin Fehervary | 24 | 2023 | 20 (67GP) | 18 (152GP) | 20:00 | 19:40 | ||
| **Adam Fox | 24 | 2022 | 72 (64GP) | 60 (134GP) | 24:39 | 21:39 | $9.50M 7 years | $9.62M 7 years |
| Jaccob Slavin | 24 | 2018 | 34 (82GP) | 31 (145GP) | 23:26 | 22:22 | $5.30M 7 years | $5.57M 7 years |
| Shea Theodore | 23 | 2018 | 39 (61GP) | 33 (114GP) | 20:21 | 19:14 | $5.20M 7 years | $5.46M 7 years |
| Samuel Girard | 22 | 2020 | 27 (82GP) | 26 (155GP) | 19:54 | 18:50 | $5.00M 7 years | $5.12M 7 years |
| Nikita Zaitsev | 26 | 2017 | 36 (82GP) | 36 (82GP) | 22:01 | 22:01 | $4.50M 7 years | $5.01M 7 years |
| Oscar Klefbom | 23 | 2016 | 27 (60GP) | 24 (77GP) | 22:00 | 20:38 | $4.17M 7 years | $4.77M 7 years |
| Mattias Samuelson | 23 | 2023 | 20 (42GP) | 18 (54GP) | 20:00 | 19:33 | $4.28M 7 years | $4.28M 7 years |
Looking at the comps, most had more value than Fehervary at the time of signing. However, the one player who stands out as a near perfect comp at the time of signing was Mattias Samuelsson.
Samuelsson had identical production in his signing year and over his career, along with identical signing year ice time and almost identical career ice time. While Fehervary had much more NHL experience at the time of signing and may have had a deal come in higher as a result, Samuelsson’s $4.28M cap hit represents a very good range for what Fehervary could have made on a seven-year deal.
6 YEARS
Looking at the six-year comps, again, most players had better stats than Fehervary.
| Player | Age | First Year of Contract | Signing Year P/82 | Career P/82 | Signing Year TOI | Career TOI | Contract | On $83.5M Cap Hit |
| Martin Fehervary | 24 | 2023 | 20 (67GP) | 18 (152GP) | 20:00 | 19:40 | ||
| Cale Makar | 23 | 2021 | 82 (44GP) | 76 (101GP) | 24:19 | 22:27 | $9.00M 6 years | $9.22M 6 years |
| Quinn Hughes | 22 | 2021 | 60 (56GP) | 62 (129GP) | 22:48 | 22:08 | $7.85M 6 years | $8.04M 6 years |
| Brady Skjei | 24 | 2018 | 25 (82GP) | 31 (169GP) | 21:02 | 19:12 | $5.25M 6 years | $5.51M 6 years |
| Shayne Gostisbehere | 24 | 2017 | 42 (76GP) | 49 (142GP) | 19:36 | 19:43 | $4.50M 6 years | $5.01M 6 years |
| Jakob Chychrun | 21 | 2019 | 23 (50GP) | 24 (118GP) | 20:15 | 18:11 | $4.60M 6 years | $4.71M 6 years |
| Rasmus Andersson | 24 | 2020 | 26 (70GP) | 21 (160GP) | 19:56 | 17:43 | $4.55M 6 years | $4.66M 6 years |
| Damon Severson | 23 | 2017 | 32 (80GP) | 28 (203GP) | 20:21 | 19:59 | $4.17M 6 years | $4.64M 6 years |
| Brian Dumoulin | 26 | 2017 | 18 (70GP) | 17 (163GP) | 20:33 | 19:27 | $4.10M 6 years | $4.56M 6 years |
| John Marino | 24 | 2021 | 21 (52GP) | 30 (108GP) | 20:44 | 20:29 | $4.40M 6 years | $4.51M 6 years |
| **Mattias Ekholm | 26 | 2016 | 20 (88GP) | 16 (153GP) | 18:56 | 17:58 | $3.75M 6 years | $4.29M 6 years |
| Brett Pesce | 24 | 2018 | 20 (82GP) | 20 (151GP) | 21:12 | 20:05 | $4.03M 6 years | $4.13M 6 years |
| **Zach Whitecloud | 26 | 2022 | 19 (55GP) | 16 (72GP) | 17:37 | 16:52 | $2.75M 6 years | $2.78M 6 years |
That said, from Dumoulin down to Whitecloud, we do see other defensemen with more comparable stats, establishing a range of $2.78M to $4.56M for what a six-year deal could’ve looked like for Fehervary. Given what he made on the three-year deal, along with the fact that Dumoulin, Marino, Ekholm and Pesce all had an adjusted cap hit at $4.13M or above, Fehervary would’ve still been expected to reach around the $4M range on a six-year deal.
5 YEARS
| Player | Age | First Year of Contract | Signing Year P/82 | Career P/82 | Signing Year TOI | Career TOI | Contract | On $83.5M Cap Hit |
| Martin Fehervary | 24 | 2023 | 20 (67GP) | 18 (152GP) | 20:00 | 19:40 | ||
| Colton Parayko | 24 | 2017 | 35 (81GP) | 35 (160GP) | 21:12 | 20:18 | $5.50M 5 years | $6.12M 5 years |
| David Savard | 26 | 2016 | 36 (82GP) | 27 (187GP) | 22:57 | 19:46 | $4.25M 5 years | $4.86M 5 years |
| Simon Despres | 25 | 2016 | 25 (75GP) | 20 (160GP) | 16:52 | 16:11 | $3.70M 5 years | $4.23M 5 years |
| *Marcus Pettersson | 24 | 2020 | 25 (50GP) | 23 (156GP) | 19:22 | 17:03 | $4.03M 5 years | $4.13M 5 years |
Five years is where Fehervary may have dropped below a $4M cap hit. He’s most comparable to Despres and Pettersson who had very similar experience, but slightly higher production. That said, Fehervary’s ice time may have be an argument as to why he could’ve still hit $4M.
4 YEARS
| Player | Age | First Year of Contract | Signing Year P/82 | Career P/82 | Signing Year TOI | Career TOI | Contract | On $83.5M Cap Hit |
| Martin Fehervary | 24 | 2023 | 20 (67GP) | 18 (152GP) | 20:00 | 19:40 | ||
| Tyson Barrie | 25 | 2016 | 52 (78GP) | 48 (264GP) | 23:12 | 21:06 | $5.50M 4 years | $6.29M 4 years |
| Neal Pionk | 26 | 2021 | 49 (54GP) | 24 (226GP) | 21:58 | 22:12 | $5.88M 4 years | $6.02M 4 years |
| Torey Krug | 25 | 2016 | 45 (81GP) | 43 (241GP) | 21:37 | 19:33 | $5.25M 4 years | $6.01M 4 years |
| Sami Vatanen | 25 | 2016 | 44 (71GP) | 41 (194GP) | 21:19 | 20:11 | $4.88M 4 years | $5.58M 4 years |
| Devon Toews | 26 | 2020 | 34 (68GP) | 33 (116GP) | 20:31 | 19:26 | $4.10M 4 years | $4.20M 4 years |
| Colin Miller | 26 | 2018 | 41 (82GP) | 31 (185GP) | 19:21 | 17:22 | $3.88M 4 years | $4.08M 4 years |
| Radko Gudas | 26 | 2016 | 15 (76GP) | 19 (202GP) | 19:51 | 18:50 | $3.35M 4 years | $3.83M 4 years |
| Matt Grzelcyk | 26 | 2020 | 25 (68GP) | 22 (197GP) | 18:04 | 17:57 | $3.69M 4 years | $3.78M 4 years |
| *Markus Nutivaara | 24 | 2018 | 31 (60GP) | 20 (126GP) | 16:09 | 14:37 | $2.70M 4 years | $2.84M 4 years |
| Sean Walker | 26 | 2020 | 28 (70GP) | 26 (109GP) | 18:50 | 17:37 | $2.65M 4 years | $2.72M 4 years |
| Jeremy Lauzon | 25 | 2022 | 9 (66GP) | 10 (142GP) | 17:40 | 17:26 | $2.00M 4 years | $2.02M 4 years |
Based on comparables for a four-year deal, Fehervary’s production (and ice time, for the most part), was drastically lower than players listed from Barrie down to Miller. However, he would’ve had more value than Lauzon, and closer comparables are present from Sean Walker’s $2.72M adjusted cap hit to Radko Gudas’ $3.83M cap hit.
Considering Fehervary got $2.67M for three years, he almost surely would’ve been above $3M, but the question would be how close he could’ve gotten to Gudas and Grzelyck’s $3.8M adjusted cap hit.
3 YEARS
Three years was an ideal term for the team, given they get the player for multiple years at a reasonable cap hit, but he’ll still be a restricted free agent when the contract expires.
| Player | Age | First Year of Contract | Signing Year P/82 | Career P/82 | Signing Year TOI | Career TOI | Contract | On $83.5M Cap Hit |
| Martin Fehervary | 24 | 2023 | 20 (67GP) | 18 (152GP) | 20:00 | 19:40 | ||
| Charlie McAvoy | 22 | 2019 | 43 (54GP) | 42 (117GP) | 22:10 | 22:10 | $4.90M 3 years | $5.02M 3 years |
| Noah Dobson | 22 | 2022 | 52 (80GP) | 37 (160GP) | 21:28 | 18:16 | $4.00M 3 years | $4.05M 3 years |
| Will Butcher | 24 | 2019 | 32 (78GP) | 38 (159GP) | 19:16 | 17:38 | $3.73M 3 years | $3.82M 3 years |
| Mackenzie Weegar | 26 | 2020 | 33 (45GP) | 20 (172GP) | 20:07 | 16:58 | $3.25M 3 years | $3.33M 3 years |
| Ryan Graves | 25 | 2020 | 31 (69GP) | 27 (95GP) | 18:57 | 16:48 | $3.17M 3 years | $3.25M 3 years |
| *Matt Roy | 26 | 2021 | 23 (25GP) | 21 (120GP) | 19:32 | 18:12 | $3.15M 3 years | $3.23M 3 years |
| Erik Cernak | 23 | 2020 | 15 (67GP) | 18 (125GP) | 18:57 | 19:05 | $2.95M 3 years | $3.20M 3 years |
| Ryan Lindgren | 23 | 2021 | 26 (51GP) | 21 (116GP) | 20:00 | 17:59 | $3.00M 3 years | $3.07M 3 years |
| Mark Pysyk | 25 | 2017 | 17 (82GP) | 17 (207GP) | 18:34 | 17:51 | $2.73M 3 years | $3.04M 3 years |
| Vladislav Gavrikov | 25 | 2020 | 21 (69GP) | 21 (69GP) | 18:59 | 18:59 | $2.80M 3 years | $2.87M 3 years |
| Carson Soucy | 26 | 2020 | 21 (55GP) | 20 (58GP) | 15:38 | 15:35 | $2.75M 3 years | $2.82M 3 years |
| Andrew Peeke | 25 | 2023 | 15 (82GP) | 15 (115GP) | 21:29 | 19:36 | $2.75M 3 years | $2.75M 3 years |
| Gustav Forsling | 25 | 2021 | 32 (43GP) | 22 (165GP) | 19:57 | 17:49 | $2.67M 3 years | $2.74M 3 years |
| Adam Boqvist | 22 | 2022 | 35 (52GP) | 33 (128GP) | 17:03 | 16:46 | $2.60M 3 years | $2.63M 3 years |
| Philippe Myers | 23 | 2020 | 26 (50GP) | 21 (71GP) | 17:06 | 16:36 | $2.55M 3 years | $2.61M 3 years |
| Henri Jokiharju | 22 | 2021 | 14 (46GP) | 19 (153GP) | 18:23 | 18:00 | $2.50M 3 years | $2.56M 3 years |
| Alexander Romanov | 22 | 2022 | 13 (79GP) | 12 (133GP) | 20:24 | 19:07 | $2.50M 3 years | $2.53M 3 years |
| Jacob Middleton | 26 | 2022 | 17 (66GP) | 17 (80GP) | 18:41 | 17:15 | $2.45M 3 years | $2.48M 3 years |
| Stephen Johns | 26 | 2018 | 16 (75GP) | 15 (150GP) | 17:33 | 17:52 | $2.35M 3 years | $2.47M 3 years |
| Jake Bean | 23 | 2021 | 23 (42GP) | 22 (44GP) | 14:32 | 14:16 | $2.33M 3 years | $2.39M 3 years |
| Jamie Oleksiak | 26 | 2018 | 21 (68GP) | 16 (187GP) | 16:40 | 15:25 | $2.14M 3 years | $2.25M 3 years |
We can understand that Fehervary’s three-year deal was always going to come below Graves’ $3.25M cap hit, given any player above that point had better production and usually better ice time as well.
That said, it’s easy to see why he was going to come in above Jokiharju’s $2.55M cap hit, with players below that point having even lower production and ice time.
Even looking at the $2.55M to $3.25M range, Fehervary had more ice time than many other comps within that range. As a result, Fehervary’s $2.68M cap hit arguably comes in on the lower end of where it could’ve been.
2 YEARS
| Player | Age | First Year of Contract | Signing Year P/82 | Career P/82 | Signing Year TOI | Career TOI | Contract | On $83.5M Cap Hit |
| Martin Fehervary | 24 | 2023 | 20 (67GP) | 18 (152GP) | 20:00 | 19:40 | ||
| Ryan Pulock | 26 | 2020 | 42 (68GP) | 38 (234GP) | 22:24 | 20:43 | $5.00M 2 years | $5.12M 2 years |
| Bowen Byram | 22 | 2023 | 47 (42GP) | 39 (91GP) | 21:53 | 19:54 | $3.85M 2 years | $3.85M 2 years |
| Jacob Trouba | 22 | 2016 | 22 (81GP) | 28 (211GP) | 19:19 | 18:54 | $3.00M 2 years | $3.43M 2 years |
| Darnell Nurse | 23 | 2018 | 26 (82GP) | 20 (197GP) | 22:15 | 20:19 | $3.20M 2 years | $3.36M 2 years |
| Travis Sanheim | 23 | 2019 | 35 (82GP) | 28 (131GP) | 19:34 | 18:04 | $3.25M 2 years | $3.33M 2 years |
| Josh Morrissey | 23 | 2018 | 26 (81GP) | 23 (164GP) | 20:27 | 19:57 | $3.15M 2 years | $3.31M 2 years |
| *Ryan Murray | 23 | 2016 | 25 (56GP) | 25 (134GP) | 22:31 | 20:54 | $2.83M 2 years | $3.24M 2 years |
| Cody Ceci | 23 | 2016 | 28 (75GP) | 22 (205GP) | 19:18 | 18:48 | $2.80M 2 years | $3.20M 2 years |
| Matt Dumba | 22 | 2016 | 26 (81GP) | 24 (152GP) | 16:50 | 15:46 | $2.55M 2 years | $2.92M 2 years |
| Nathan Beaulieu | 25 | 2017 | 31 (74GP) | 22 (225GP) | 19:29 | 17:15 | $2.40M 2 years | $2.67M 2 years |
| **Derek Forbort | 26 | 2018 | 19 (88GP) | 18 (102GP) | 20:12 | 18:56 | $2.53M 2 years | $2.66M 2 years |
| Oliver Kylington | 25 | 2022 | 35 (73GP) | 23 (168GP) | 18:10 | 15:21 | $2.50M 2 years | $2.53M 2 years |
| Artem Zub | 26 | 2021 | 24 (47GP) | 24 (47GP) | 18:23 | 18:23 | $2.50M 2 years | $2.56M 2 years |
| Nate Schmidt | 26 | 2017 | 23 (60GP) | 18 (200GP) | 15:29 | 16:34 | $2.23M 2 years | $2.48M 2 years |
| Dante Fabbro | 23 | 2021 | 25 (40GP) | 18 (108GP) | 19:19 | 18:54 | $2.40M 2 years | $2.46M 2 years |
| Esa Lindell | 23 | 2017 | 20 (73GP) | 19 (77GP) | 21:52 | 21:28 | $2.20M 2 years | $2.45M 2 years |
Looking at the two-year comparables, Fehervary certainly should’ve come in on the lower end of the range above.
From Murray and above, all players typically had better stats, so he was likely coming in below $3.2M. Even below that mark, many players had better production. The most realistic range would’ve been at $2.5M or slightly below, based on the range of comps from Lindell to Zub.
1 YEAR
We typically don’t see one-year bridge deals for players around Fehervary’s age.
| Player | Age | First Year of Contract | Signing Year P/82 | Career P/82 | Signing Year TOI | Career TOI | Contract | On $83.5M Cap Hit |
| Martin Fehervary | 24 | 2023 | 20 (67GP) | 18 (152GP) | 20:00 | 19:40 | ||
| Dmitry Orlov | 25 | 2016 | 29 (82GP) | 24 (102GP) | 16:02 | 17:13 | $2.57M 1 year | $2.94M 1 year |
| Patrik Nemeth | 26 | 2018 | 18 (68GP) | 14 (176GP) | 19:51 | 17:17 | $2.50M 1 year | $2.63M 1 year |
| *Dante Fabbro | 25 | 2023 | 12 (56GP) | 20 (230GP) | 16:04 | 18:15 | $2.50M 1 year | $2.50M 1 year |
| Ethan Bear | 25 | 2022 | 20 (58GP) | 20 (190GP) | 16:05 | 18:57 | $2.20M 1 year | $2.23M 1 year |
| Vince Dunn | 24 | 2020 | 27 (71GP) | 30 (224GP) | 16:16 | 17:02 | $1.88M 1 year | $1.93M 1 year |
| Mikey Anderson | 23 | 2022 | 12 (51GP) | 14 (117GP) | 20:07 | 20:30 | $1.00M 1 year | $1.01M 1 year |
That said, we can see that based on the comps, he was probably coming in above Mikey Anderson and below Dmitry Orlov but that’s about all we can tell, establishing a range of $1.93M and $2.63M, with a possible one-year deal likely on the lower end of the range.
Final Analysis
A bridge deal is frequently taken for defenders around Fehervary’s age and NHL experience, so it’s not surprising to see that length for his deal. Any contract around five years or longer likely would’ve came in around a $4M cap hit or higher, so committing shorter term at a lower price makes sense, in order to to get a better idea of what kind of player Fehervary is going to be.
Based on comparables above, Fehervary’s likely range for a three-year deal would’ve been between about $2.55M and $3.25M. As a result, Fehervary’s $2.68M deal comes in at an expected number, and potentially slightly lower than it could’ve been.
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