Photo by RMNB’s own Chris Gordon

The Washington Capitals announced Wednesday that they have signed forward Matt Hendricks to a two-year contract extension worth $800,000 per season. The Blaine, Minnesota native has become a fan favorite this year — his first as a Capital. After coming to training camp on a professional try-out, Hendricks signed a one-year deal with the Caps in September. He has made a name for himself in DC with his enthusiasm, grit and willingness to drop the gloves and fight blindfolded.

After breaking into the NHL with the Colorado Avalanche in 2009 on a two-way contract, Hendricks has finally inked himself to his first career one-way deal. The signing caps off a productive week for the 29 year-old. Blaine High School — Hendricks’ alma mater — retired his former number 10 jersey over the weekend.

Concerning Hendricks’ contract itself, it provides a good value to the Capitals with little downside. We can evaluate the deal using the Goals Versus Salary (GVS) metric, which measures a player’s offensive and defensive contributions in goals relative to what the team should expect given the player’s salary.

For example, this season Matt Hendricks has already contributed 3.2 goals above threshold, or GVT, which would equate to roughly a $1.5 million cap hit. So, if a team were to spend $1.5 million they should expect to get 3.2 goals above what a replacement player would provide.

Since this is a 2-year deal we can project Hendricks’ performance using similar players at the same age over the life of the contract.

His projection — over 82 games — would be valued at about a $1.3 million cap hit in 2012 and at $0.87 million in 2013. That would mean Washington is paying $1.6 million for over $2 million worth of production. Even in a worse case scenario, the organization would only have to see boxcars of 5-5-10 with 30-40 PIMs over 55 games each year for the contract to “break even.” That makes this a nice move for the Caps. Their fans will certainly be happy to have Hendricks in the nation’s capital for years to come.

Additional Reaction

Now go order that jersey.

[Really. Go order that jersey. Modell's is having a 40% sale today only. Coupon code is MOD40ASI223]

Introduction by Chris Gordon; editing by Ian Oland.