Matt Beleskey was going to cash in, big time. He was going to be this year’s David Clarkson (for better or worse) — a good, rugged player whose strong season in the final year of his contract was going to net him superstar dollars. At least that was the conventional wisdom prior to the opening bell of free agency on July 1.
It was a presumption based not only on Beleskey’s breakout 22-goal season with Anaheim but also a relatively thin free agent class. Then when Colorado dropped $4.75 million per season over five years on former Bruin Carl Soderberg (throwing in a sixth-round draft pick for his rights), pretty much everyone expected Beleskey, arguably the best forward on the market, to get a long-term deal in the range of $5 million a year.