Islanders GM seems to already hate new contract he just handed out

After trading for center Bo Horvat late last week the New York Islanders acted quickly to sign him to a brand new eight-year contract extension on Sunday. 

The man that handed out that contract, general manager Lou Lamoriello, already seems to hate it.

Horvat's new deal is reportedly worth $8.5 million per season to keep the 29-year-old on Long Island. 

And Lamoriello's honest assessment of that?

“All I can tell you, it’s too long and it’s too much money,” Lamoriello said at a press conference discussing the deal. “You want the truth?”

He added later "As I said, contracts these days are too long." 

What makes that comment so hilarious is that when Lamoriello was general manager of the New Jersey Devils he handed out one of the largest contracts in NHL history when he signed Ilya Kovalchuk to a 15-year, $100 million contract in the summer of 2010. That came after the NHL rejected a potential 17-year contract that was considered a violation of the league's salary cap rules and ultimately resulted in the Devils being fined and punished by the league. 

The league has since put maximum term limits on contracts. Teams re-signing their own players can only re-sign players to an eight-year deal, while free agents are limited to seven-year contracts.

The other layer to that statement from Lamoriello is that he is probably right with his assessment of the Horvat deal.

While he is having a great year, it is the best season of Horvat's career while he will be 30 years old when the new contract begins. There is always risk in signing a player to a long-term contract extension in the middle of a career year, especially when they are approaching their age 30 season. Most NHL players tend to hit peak production in their mid-20s and start to decline into their 30s. It is a nice short-term deal for the Islanders with some very real long-term risk.