Griffin Reinhart Reaches Entry Level Deal with New York Islanders

As clipped earlier and now officially announced by the team, the New York Islanders have reached an agreement with 2012 first-round pick Griffin Reinhart on an entry level deal.

For the CBA-averse among you, that means a three-year deal for a player of Reinhart's age (18). Terms were not disclosed, but the rookie salary cap remains $925,000, while potential performance bonuses and signing bonuses can take an ELC cap hit up to $3.77 million territory (e.g., see CapGeek's unofficial outline for Nail Yakupov's ELC).

It's not likely that Reinhart, as the fourth overall pick, is compensated quite that high:

• The Isles' 2011 5th-overall pick Ryan Strome had the max salary of $925,000, but bonuses took the cap hit only up to $1.77 million. (And that cap hit will be lower now, because for cap accounting some of his bonus was assigned to 2011-12, but without playing 10 games the "slide" rule moves the rest of his contract up one year.)
• 2010 5th-overall pick Nino Niederreiter took the then-rookie max $900,000 NHL salary but higher bonuses that took his cap hit to $2.825 million (it is now also lower after a year of "slide" in 2010-11).
  

At minimum, before official terms are released leaked, you can bet Reinhart is taking home a signing bonus in excess of $200,000 like his peers Niederreiter, Brock Nelson ($270k bonus according to CapGeek) and Strome (whom, per the beauty of Twitter, Reinhart should be beating up about now).

And of course, even without making the NHL roster he gets some cash and a contract now, before any potential work stoppage this fall and before the next CBA, which -- if the owners get their way -- could further limit young players' movement and earning capacity.