Every NHL Team's Worst Contract Heading into 2024-25 Season
If you want to win in a salary-capped league like the NHL, you have to make sure you spend your money wisely. Every dollar matters under the cap, and every contract is going to be put under a microscope to make sure it is a good value for the production your team is getting.
We already looked at each team's best contract for the 2024-25 season, and now we are going to the opposite end of the spectrum and looking at each team's worst contract for the 2024-25 season.
Some of them might be obvious.
Some of them might not be.
Some of them might still be for good players who are simply a little overpaid and perhaps for too many years.
Let's get into it.
Anaheim Ducks: John Gibson
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Gibson has been in Anaheim for more than a decade at this point, and hes been the team's full-time starting goalie for most of the years.
In the first half of his career, he was one of the best goalies in the league and a legitimate game-changer.
Those days are long gone, as he has failed to post a save percentage over .900 in consecutive seasons and has not topped .904 since the 2018-19 season. Perhaps it is the lack of support around him, or perhaps it is the workload he has had to take on behind a rebuilding team, or perhaps he has just slowed down as he has gotten older.
Most likely it is a combination of all three factors.
Either way, he is still owed more than $6 million per year against the cap for another three seasons with no-trade protections. The Ducks are simply not getting that level of play for that dollar amount.
Boston Bruins: Nikita Zadorov
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For the Bruins' worst contract, we go to one of their newest additions this offseason in Zadorov.
In a lot of ways, Zadorov is a nice fit for the Bruins' style of play. He is a big, physical defender who is not afraid to hit people and will probably be a very popular player among Bruins fans.
But a four-year, $20 million investment for a player who has been a third-pairing defender for most of his career is a bold investment, and one that Boston might come to regret.
There is nothing wrong with wanting Zadorov on your team. This is simply too much money for too many years for him.
Buffalo Sabres: Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen
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This is a fascinating one, because Luukkonen was one of the few bright spots in Buffalo during the 2023-24 season, posting a .910 save percentage and playing at an above-average level for most of the season.
The Sabres rewarded him with a four-year, $19 million contract extension.
It is not a huge contract by any means, but it is definitely a risky contract given how small his track record is and how unproven he is long-term. Projecting future goalie performances is an inexact science that even the best teams struggle with, and there is a non-zero chance he is not even the best young goalie in the Sabres' system (that could still end up being Devon Levi).
If he repeats his 2023-24 performance? It is a fine deal.
If he does not? That could be a problem.
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Calgary Flames: Jonathan Huberdeau
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Acquiring Huberdeau and defenseman MacKenzie Weegar as part of the Matthew Tkachuk trade seemed like a massive blockbuster deal that both teams could benefit from. That seemed especially true after the Flames re-signed Huberdeau—at the time one of the most prolific scorers and point-producers in the NHL—to an eight-year, $84 million contract extension.
It has quickly turned out to be one of the worst contracts in the entire NHL.
He is still owed $10.5 million per season for another seven years and has been a fraction of the player he was in Florida.
His offensive production has dropped down to a fringe first-line/second-line level, while he offers very little away from the puck.
His 27 goals over the past two seasons—combined—are less than he scored in his final full season with the Panthers (30). This might be the worst contract in hockey unless something dramatically changes with him offensively this season.
Carolina Hurricanes: Jesperi Kotkaniemi
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Kotkaniemi was Carolina's response to the Sebastian Aho offer sheet when the Hurricanes and Montreal Canadiens were having their little restricted free agency fight.
After getting Kotkaniemi on a one-year deal, the Hurricanes signed him to an eight-year, $38.5 million contract extension.
In terms of salary-cap hit, it is a very manageable number ($4.82 million against the salary cap), but that is a lot of years for a player like him.
He is a solid two-way player who is very capable defensively, but his offensive game has never really evolved or developed into something meaningful. Decent player, but do you really need to sign a decent player for eight years?
Chicago Blackhawks: Connor Murphy
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This is where Seth Jones usually gets mentioned when the Chicago Blackhawks are the subject, but here's a potentially controversial opinion—he hasn't been bad in Chicago.
In fact, he's been pretty good. And even though his $9.5 million salary-cap hit is excessive, I don't think it's that far off from what he would get if he hit the open market in free agency this offseason. He's a steady, productive presence in a lineup that doesn't have enough of those.
So instead of picking at that low-hanging fruit, I am going to say Murphy, who is still owed $4 million per year for another two seasons as the worst contract here.
It is not that Murphy is necessarily a bad player, because when he is healthy, he is not bad. But the "when healthy" is a really big qualifier there, and the Blackhawks simply do not see that enough, especially over the past three seasons when he has missed more than 23 games in two of those seasons. That includes nearly half of the season in 2023-24.
It's just a lot of money tied up in a player who is not always on the ice and does not really make much of an impact when he is.
Colorado Avalanche: Miles Wood
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Wood is a fine bottom-six player, and his $2.5 million salary-cap number is not anything outrageous.
The issue here is all about the term, because you simply do not need to sign a bottom-six player to a seven-year contract.
The Avalanche still have him on the books for another five seasons.
Colorado simply does not have many bad contracts, which is a big reason it is so consistently competitive. So this is one where we had to reach a little bit.
Columbus Blue Jackets: Erik Gudbranson
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Gudbranson is a physical presence on the ice and a big-time presence in the locker room. But he does not really make a huge impact on the ice in terms of preventing goals or helping his team push the play in the right direction. His $4 million salary-cap number is a lot and could have probably been spent in more meaningful ways.
His addition in free agency a couple of years ago was one of the reasons Columbus had to trade a very productive, skilled player in Oliver Bjorkstrand away for just a couple of draft picks.
Dallas Stars: Ilya Lyubushkin
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This was kind of a weird signing by a team that does most things right.
Signing Lyubushkin to a three-year, $9.75 million contract just seems like a poor use of limited salary-cap space. He is a third-pairing defenseman who will hit a lot of people and block shots, but nothing about his defensive metrics stands out and he provides almost nothing offensively.
Lyubushkin is a very expensive third-pairing defender and his contract is the type of little mistake that, if you make too many of them, can add up to big issues.
The Stars paid him and Matt Dumba nearly $6 million this offseason. That is a couple of little mistakes starting to add up.
Detroit Red Wings: Ben Chiarot
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Chiarot is the type of defenseman who has an intense hold on the NHL's general managers. He got traded for big returns and then signed a four-year, $19 million contract in Detroit a couple of years ago.
There was a time when he was a pretty capable defender, but those days are gone. Now he tends to get too many minutes in too many big roles. In Detroit, he has spent way too much time on the team's top pairing next to Moritz Seider over the past two seasons, a partnership that only limited one of the team's best young players. This signing was a big miss by general manager Steve Yzerman.
Edmonton Oilers: Darnell Nurse
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After having a monster year offensively in 2020-21, when the Oilers were only playing against the league's other Canadian teams, Edmonton's prior front office seemed convinced he would repeat that performance every year and signed him to a long-term contract extension that pays him over $9 million per season.
He has never come close to repeating that performance and at times was a liability during the team's Stanley Cup Final run this past season.
For a team that is consistently pressed against the salary cap, Nurse's contract is a big issue that the team would probably like to find a way to get out of. He is, at best, the third-best defenseman on the roster despite being—for now—the team's highest-paid player at the position.
Florida Panthers: Aaron Ekblad
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This isn't even a bad contract if we are being completely honest here. Ekblad is a really good player and his $7.5 million salary-cap number is totally fine for the player he is when he's healthy.
The Panthers simply don't have any glaringly bad contracts that are obvious picks here.
They are paying over $14 million to their goaltending duo of Sergei Bobrovsky and Spencer Knight, but Bobrovsky was a Vezina Trophy finalist this past season and Knight still has a chance to be a starting caliber goalie.
Their stars are either making exactly what they should be making given their production, or probably less than what they could be making.
It is just a great team that is really well constructed.
The only thing that makes Ekblad a contender for being their "worst" contract is he has a tendency to miss a lot of games. But even that is nothing more than bad luck at times.
Los Angeles Kings: Joel Edmundson
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Edmundson was, at one time, a solid middle-pairing defender who could offer a lot to a team in the right situations.
But the Kings signed him to a four-year contract worth over $3.75 million per season, and they are unlikely to get that level of play out of him. What makes it even worse is they are bringing him in, in part, to replace Matt Roy who signed with the Washington Capitals in free agency.
That is a significant downgrade on the ice.
Minnesota Wild: Ryan Suter and Zach Parise
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This might be going against the spirit of the idea of this article, but here is the reality—the buyouts for Zach Parise and Ryan Suter remain on the team's books just as any active player would, and that eats into what the team can do in building its roster.
Specifically, those two buyouts still account for more than $14 million against the salary cap this season...for two players who have not played on the team for several years.
The Wild have had to lose a lot of depth and have not been able to build around their core players because they are operating with a lower cap than pretty much every other team in the league.
It is almost impossible to win with that.
Fortunately, this is the final year of those two buyouts having this big of an impact on their salary cap. The buyout numbers drop significantly starting next season.
Montreal Canadiens: Josh Anderson
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Anderson's long-term contract that paid him $5.5 million per season was always a huge risk the moment it was signed.
At the time, he was coming off an injury-shortened campaign that saw him score just one goal. The Canadiens were banking on him getting fully healthy and blossoming into a bona fide, top-line, power forward, but it has simply never happened.
He had a couple of decent goal-scoring seasons in Montreal, but his 2023-24 season saw him score just nine goals in 78 games.
He still has three more years at his current cap hit, and now that he is into his 30s, it is unlikely he has many more big years ahead of him.
Nashville Predators: Brady Skjei
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Skjei was part of Nashville's big offseason of spending in free agency, and of the three major contracts they signed (joining Steven Stamkos and Jonathan Marchessault) this one might be the riskiest.
He is a fine player, and he should help improve their defense, but is he really a seven-year, $49 million player?
Sure, that is probably the going rate of a free-agent defender, but he is going to be 30 years old starting this season and he may have already played his best hockey for somebody else.
Of course, if Nashville gets a Stanley Cup out of this, nobody in Music City is going to care about his future cap hit or how much his game may or may not decline.
New Jersey Devils: Ondrej Palat
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Palat was one of the many offseason splashes the Devils have made in recent years, signing a five-year, $30 million contract in free agency.
After being limited to just 49 games in his first year with the team, he came back in 2023-24 and managed just 11 goals in 78 games.
He is a good veteran with championship experience, but his price tag for his age and production is a lot for a Devils team that is soon going to be pressed to the upper limits of the league's salary cap.
New York Islanders: Jean-Gabriel Pageau
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When the Islanders initially acquired Pageau during the 2019-20 season and re-signed him to a long-term deal, he was a Selke-level defensive forward who could also push the 20-goal mark over 82 games. His $5 million salary was pretty reasonable for that type of player.
But just a few years later, and as he enters his age 31 season, his production has dropped and his defensive presence is not what it used to be.
His 2023-24 season saw him appear in all 82 games, but he only scored 11 goals and recorded the lowest ice-time of his Islanders career (only 15:55 per game).
He still has two years remaining at that $5 million salary-cap number.
New York Rangers: Jacob Trouba
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When a Stanley Cup contender spends a significant portion of its offseason desperately looking for a way to trade its captain, that is a pretty good sign that something is off.
In Trouba's case, it is a combination of both his contract (over $8 million against the salary cap for two more seasons) and his rapidly declining play.
He remains one of the NHL's most feared open-ice hitters, but his defensive game has regressed over the past couple of years to the point where he is almost a complete liability in the defensive zone.
The Rangers were unable to trade him, largely due to his trade protections and desire to remain in New York.
It is a contract that will cause a lot of headaches for the Rangers both this season and next as they try to win a Stanley Cup (and eventually re-sign starting goalie Igor Shesterkin).
Ottawa Senators: Joshua Norris
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Norris was one of the key players acquired in the trade that sent Erik Karlsson to San Jose a few years ago, and when healthy he has been an excellent player who has produced one 35-goal season.
The problem, however, is that injuries have significantly limited him the past two seasons (just 58 total games), and while he has shown some potential as a scorer, his production has not matched what you might expect from a $7.9 million player for another four seasons.
He averages about 25 goals and 50 points per 82 games. There is nothing wrong with that level of production in a vacuum. But for almost $8 million per year, you might like to see more.
Philadelphia Flyers: Sean Couturier
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This is more bad luck than anything else.
When Couturier signed this contract, he was an outstanding two-way center and a bona fide Selke Trophy contender as one of the top defensive centers in the league.
But injuries have completely derailed his career over the past couple of years, and his play has significantly regressed. He may never be the same player again, and the Flyers remain on the hook for a $7.75 million salary-cap hit through the end of the 2030 season.
He has appeared in just 103 games since the start of the 2021-22 season.
Pittsburgh Penguins: Ryan Graves
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Kyle Dubas' first offseason in charge of the Pittsburgh Penguins saw him add two significant defenders to his roster.
There was the trade for future Hall of Famer Erik Karlsson, and then there was the free agency signing of Graves.
While Karlsson might have been a little bit of a disappointment in his first season with the team, he was still a productive player who generated a ton of offense and was arguably their best defenseman. Graves, meanwhile, was borderline unplayable at times and still counts $4.5 million against the salary cap through the end of the 2029 season.
It was an overpay and a questionable contract from the moment it was signed.
San Jose Sharks: Marc-Edouard Vlasic
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This is simply a case of a once-great player running out of steam and getting older. Such is life in professional sports.
Vlasic is still owed $7 million over the next two seasons, but he has not been a top-pairing defender for at least five years now.
At his peak, he was a cornerstone player for the Sharks. But now that he is set to enter his age-37 season, he is simply a shell of what he used to be.
Nobody did anything wrong here. Father Time simply always wins.
Seattle Kraken: Chandler Stephenson
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It is difficult to understand what Seattle was thinking when it signed Chandler Stephenson for more than $6 million per year through the end of the 2031 season.
He is going to be 30 years old in the first year of the deal, already showed signs of slowing down this past season and has simply not been all that effective of a scorer—or player—when he has not been paired up with Mark Stone in recent years.
Sadly for the Kraken, Stone is not joining Stephenson in Seattle.
He was a great find for Vegas and a good fit on Stone's line, but there is a reason the Golden Knights were fine letting him walk. This contract made Seattle one of the big early losers from the offseason, as it is probably not going to go as they planned.
St. Louis Blues: Jordan Binnington
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To Binnington's credit, he did have a really strong bounce-back season in 2023-24 and finished with a .913 save percentage. That is not only well above the league average, but it was also his best single-season performance in three years.
The concern, though, is there's not much evidence to indicate he can or will repeat that performance over another full season.
He came out of nowhere for the Blues in 2019 and helped them win the franchise's first-ever Stanley Cup, and he was truly great that year. But that was also one of the high points in his career to this point, and he remains alarmingly inconsistent and always seems to be one goal or collision in the crease away from completely melting down.
That is a lot of concerns for a goalie who makes $6 million per season.
Tampa Bay Lighting: Ryan McDonagh
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The Lightning are bringing back McDonagh after a brief stopover in Nashville in the hopes he can recapture some of the magic he had on Tampa Bay's blue line when it was winning Stanley Cups.
His acquisition came at a cost, as it partly contributed to the loss of Mikhail Sergachev, who was later sent to Utah in a salary-dump trade.
There is a chance that McDonagh can still offer something to the Lightning defense, but there is no way he is going to be the same player he was even a couple of years ago now that he is about to enter his age-35 season. He can still be a solid presence in the defensive zone, but do not expect much offense or puck movement from him at this point.
He counts a very expensive $6.75 million against the salary cap for the next two seasons.
Toronto Maple Leafs: Oliver Ekman-Larsson
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The Maple Leafs tried to re-tool their defense this offseason by bringing in Ekman-Larsson and Chris Tanev in free agency.
While Tanev's contract might be a little expensive and a little too long given his age, he is still an excellent defensive player and should give the Maple Leafs a few good years of hockey before he starts slowing down.
The problem with Ekman-Larsson is that his role with the Stanley Cup-winning Panthers was a smaller, complementary role in which he was not asked to do a lot. The concern with the Maple Leafs, especially after they paid him $3.5 million per season over four years, is that they're going to lean on him too heavily and run the risk of getting exposed.
Utah Hockey Club: John Marino
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One of the benefits of having almost no long-term investments or major contracts is the way you can avoid big mistakes.
Marino was one of Utah's offseason additions to bolster their defense, and he brings a $4 million salary-cap hit with him for three seasons.
Here's the thing: If he plays like he did years ago in the first half of the season, his contract is excellent.
If he plays like he did for parts of last season and the 2023-24 season as a whole? That may be a bit of a headache.
Vancouver Canucks: Tyler Myers
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Myers' 2023-24 season in Vancouver was easily his best with the Canucks, and also one of his best seasons in years. He seemed to fit head coach Rick Tocchet's system, and the coaching change was extremely beneficial for him.
But was that a sign of things to come for Myers with the Canucks? Or was it simply a one-year blip that is not likely to be repeated?
The Canucks better hope it is a sign of things to come, because he signed a new three-year, $9 million contract this offseason. Given his age (34) and play prior to the 2023-24 season, there is reason to believe he might duplicate what he did this past season.
The Canucks used to be loaded with bad contracts. But they do not have many undesirable deals now if this is one of the worst ones they have.
Vegas Golden Knights: Ivan Barbashev
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The Golden Knights paid the Stanley Cup tax after the 2022-23 season and re-signed a couple of big playoff performers—including Barbashev—to long-term contracts.
Barbashev specifically will make $5 million per season through the end of the 2028 campaign with no-trade protections.
It is a significant investment for a good-but-not-great player who will top out at 20 goals if he's lucky. For a team that always has salary-cap struggles and always needs salary-cap flexibility, it is a potentially costly overpay. That $5 million could have probably been used in a better way.
Washington Capitals: Pierre-Luc Dubois
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On one hand, I understand what the Capitals were doing by acquiring Dubois from the Los Angeles Kings (in exchange for starting goalie Darcy Kuemper). They needed a center, and Dubois has been a good player in the NHL for a lot longer than he has been a bad player. There is a chance—maybe even a good chance—he rebounds this season with another fresh start. He also theoretically fits their style of player and the type of player they want to build their team around (big, physical power forwards with some skill).
But on the other hand, Dubois has forced his way out of two of his previous stops, and Los Angeles have up on him after just one season. Will his fourth team be the one that can maximize his potential and keep him invested for the long term?
Either way, the Capitals have an $8.5 million salary-cap number on their books through the 2031 season.
Winnipeg Jets: Neal Pionk
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Pionk has been a very productive player in Winnipeg since joining the team prior to the 2019-20 season, posting some solid point totals. That includes his 33 points (five goals, 28 assists) during the 2023-24 season.
But for as good as he has been offensively at times, his defensive game has struggled, and his $5.875 million salary-cap number is second-highest among the Jets' blueliners.
The Jets need to do a better job defending in front of two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Connor Hellebuyck, and that includes more from Pionk as long as he remains on the roster.
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