5 NHL Contract Disputes That Got Messy

As the 2024-25 season gets underway, the big story in the NHL remains the ongoing contract dispute between the Boston Bruins and starting goalie Jeremy Swayman.

Swayman remains unsigned as a restricted free agent, and the negotiations took an ugly turn this week when the Bruins went public with their supposed offer ($64 million) and Swayman's camp responded by saying that number was never offered.

It leaves the team in a messy situation with no starting goalie under contract.

Linus Ullmark was traded to the Ottawa Senators in a salary cap clearing move, leaving Swayman as the Bruins' unquestioned starter. Assuming they can get him signed.

Will it happen before the season?

Will he hold firm in his until after the games start?

Is there an offer sheet to be made?

Will the Bruins trade him?

There are so many unanswered questions that need to be settled.

It also reminded us of some other messy contract disputes in NHL history. Let's talk about five of the more notable disputes.

Eric Lindros Won't Sign in Quebec

Set Number: X51996

Hockey: Philadelphia Flyers Eric Lindros (88) in action vs Colorado Avalanche at McNichols Arena. Denver, CO 1/4/1997 CREDIT: Robert Beck (Photo by Robert Beck /Sports Illustrated via Getty Images) (Set Number: X51996 )

The Lindros saga with the Quebec Nordiques might be one of the most consequential contract disputes in league history. Especially given how it all turned out.

The Nordiques selected Lindros with the No. 1 overall pick in the 1991 NHL Draft despite his little to no interest in actually signing with the team. He held firm in that after the draft, choosing to spend most of the 1991-92 season playing for the Canadian Olympic hockey team.

Finally, two teams—the New York Rangers and Philadelphia Flyers—made lucrative trade offers to the Nordiques for Lindros' rights, and the team accepted both of them.

That meant a neutral arbiter would decide which offer was the winning offer, and the Flyers ended up winning. The result was one of the biggest and most impactful trades in NHL history.

The Flyers got a Hall of Fame player in Lindros, even if his career was cut short by concussions. He signed a six-year, $21 million contract before even playing a game in the NHL, which was an outrageous number for a player that young and that inexperienced in the early 1990s.

The Nordiques, meanwhile, used the players and draft capital acquired to help build a multiple Stanley Cup winner. The only catch is those Stanley Cups were won in Colorado after the team relocated.

Alexei Yashin Wants Out of Ottawa

Jim McIsaac/Getty Images

UNIONDALE, NY - NOVEMBER 25: Alexei Yashin #79 of the New York Islanders skates with the puck during the game against the Ottawa Senators on November 25, 2005 at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, New York.The Senators defeated the Islanders 6-2.(Photo by Jim McIsaac/Getty Images)

Yashin was the first draft pick in the history of the Ottawa Senators franchise, and for the first six years of his career he was an outstanding player and pretty close to everything they wanted. He reached his peak during the 1998-99 season when he finished second in the Hart Trophy voting.

The problem for the Senators is that Yashin had no intentions of playing out the final year of his contract, sat out the 1999-00 season, and hoped that would fulfill his requirement to the team and allow him to become a free agent.

It did not.

Even though the NHL CBA did not really cover that sort of circumstance at the time, and arbiter ruled that Yashin still owed the Senators one more season, he played out the remainder of the 2000-01 season, and was then traded the following offseason to the New York Islanders for a haul of players that included Zdeno Chara and the No. 2 overall pick in the draft that would be selected on Jason Spezza.

It was a franchise-changing move for the Senators, and a disaster for the Islanders after they signed Yashin to a 10-year, $87.5 million contract.

He played five years of that deal before being bought out.

Petr Nedved's Big Miscalculation

Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images

2004 Season: Player Petr Nedved of the New York Rangers. (Photo by Bruce Bennett Studios via Getty Images Studios/Getty Images)

Petr Nedved was a great offensive player, and he was also great at creating contract disputes. And he had several of them throughout his career.

His first big dispute took place before the 1993-94 season when he was a member of the Vancouver Canucks. Nedved sat out the year, played for Canada at the Winter Olympics and was eventually signed by the St. Louis Blues who had to surrender Craig Janney to the Canucks as compensation for Nedved.

But that dispute would be nothing compared to the one he had a few years later when he was a member of the Pittsburgh Penguins.

Nedved missed the entirety of the 1997-98 season due to the dispute, and continued his holdout into the 1998-99 season when he started playing for the Las Vegas Thunder of the old International Hockey League.

Finally, two months into the 1998-99 season, the Penguins eventually traded Nedved to the New York Rangers for Alexie Kovalev.

When Nedved finally signed his new contract with the Rangers he ended up making less money than if he had simply signed the Penguins' original contract offer,

He ended up being a productive player for the Rangers, but Kovalev thrived in Pittsburgh and played some of the best hockey of his career.

Mike Peca Sits Out an Entire Year

Vincent Laforet

6 Jan 1999: Michael Peca #27 of the Buffalo Sabres looking on during the game against the Anaheim Mighty Ducks at the Arrowhead Pond in Anaheim, California. The Sabres defeated the Mighty Ducks 3-2. Mandatory Credit: Vincent Laforet /Allsport

The late 1990s Buffalo Sabres had two primary things going for them to make them a Stanley Cup contender.

They had Dominik Hasek in goal.

And they had the elite defensive forward of that era: Mike Peca competing for the Selke Trophy every year.

But after the 1999-00 season, the Sabres were unable to come to a new contract agreement with their best skater and watched as he sat out the entirety of the 2000-01 season.

Eventually, the Sabres had to make a decision and finally traded him to the New York Islanders for a package of players that included Tim Connolly and Taylor Pyatt. The Sabres would go on to miss the playoffs three years in a row, while Peca won his first Selke Trophy in his debut season with the Islanders and helped the franchise snap what had been a seven-year playoff drought.

Steve Larmer Sits Out and Misses His Chance at History

Rick Stewart

22 Nov 1991: Rightwinger Steve Larmer of the Chicago Blackhawks works against the Buffalo Sabres during a game at Memorial Auditorium in Buffalo, New York. Mandatory Credit: Rick Stewart /Allsport

Larmer was a star for the Chicago Blackhawks throughout the 1980s and 1990s and was well on his way to becoming the NHL's ironman, having logged 884 consecutive games with the team.

But just as he was about to open the 1993-94 season with a chance to break the NHL record for most consecutive games played, he requested a trade away from the team due to his desire to get a chance of scenery.

It took a while for that trade to happen, with Larmer missing the first two months of the season and officially having his consecutive games streak snapped.

Had he not held out or been in a dispute with the Blackhawks, he would have easily broken Doug Jarvis' record. But getting out of Chicago was more important to him than a chance at history, and he eventually ended up with the New York Rangers and helped the franchise snap its Stanley Cup drought during the 1993-94 season.