Is Marc Methot's Current Contract a Bargain?

News broke earlier this month that contract negotiations between defenseman Marc Methot and the Senators organization had stalled.

Graeme Nichols of the 6th Sens said this to say at the time:

"Posturing and stalled talks are all part of the process and it is only the beginning of August. We are still approximately two months away from the start of the NHL's regular season, so there is still a ton of time for the organization to come to terms with any of their 2015 UFAs."

Nichols is certainly right that there's lots of time to get a deal done with Methot but the stalled talks have made me wonder if Methot's current deal is a steal. We talk a lot about the deals signed by Erik Karlsson and Kyle Turris provide excellent value to the team, but has Methot been doing the same thing?

While Methot struggled at times this past season, including a spell as a healthy scratch, he's a top-four defenseman across the league. A quick check of Methot's 20 closest cap hit comparables on capgeek.com suggests his current deal has a lot of value. There are some value contracts on the list, such as Montreal's Tom Gilbert ($2.8M), but also several unpalatable contracts like Robyn Regehr ($3.75M), Deryk Engelland ($3M), Jared Cowen ($2.7M), and Roman Polak ($3.1M). There aren't too many names on that list I'd take over Methot.

When you examine the 20 closest comparables for a defender like Matt Carle (a defenseman Ken Warren suggested the Methot camp was using as a guide while negotiating) who makes $5.75 million this year, Methot seems to fit better.

Is Marc Methot's current deal a bargain?