The 5 Biggest Overpays From 2025 NHL Free Agency

Free agency can be an effective tool for improving a roster, and perhaps even adding a name who can put a team over the top.

However, there is also a danger that comes with dipping into the free-agent market. You are not always dealing with players in their primes, and in most cases, they are players whose previous team did not value enough to pay what they expected.

The rest of the league then gets into bidding wars, and those long-term contracts and big-money deals can end up backfiring.

Overpays are common, and this offseason was no different. The league's salary cap took a significant jump for the first time in years, giving teams more money to spend on the open market.

Let's take a look at five of the biggest overpays so far in this year's free-agency signing period.

Ivan Provorov, Columbus Blue Jackets

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Technically speaking, the Blue Jackets re-signed Ivan Provorov before the free-agent signing period, but he was still on an expiring contract and set to become an unrestricted free agent.

So, because his previous contract had expired, we're including him here. And also because it's perhaps the biggest overpay of the summer.

The Blue Jackets gave Provorov a seven-year, $59 million contract that pays him $8.5 million per season, and nothing about that seems overly exciting, especially when he was clearly a Plan B or C option for Columbus.

Acquiring Noah Dobson seemed to be the team's bigger priority, and when that failed, it moved on to other potential options. When those failed, it circled back to Provorov and threw a bag of money at him.

While it's entirely likely the 28-year-old would have received a similar deal from another team, that doesn't necessarily make this a good signing. He plays a lot of minutes, but he doesn't play them especially well and doesn't make a significant impact in any one area.

The Russian is not an elite point producer, an elite defender or an elite possession driver. It just seems like an act of desperation by a team that had money it needed to spend.

Columbus' defense and goal-prevention were by far the two biggest issues on last year's team. The Blue Jackets ranked 25th in total goals against, 24th in 5-on-5 goals against per 60 minutes and 27th in 5-on-5 expected goals against per 60 minutes.

Their solution so far has been to bring back mostly the same defense and goaltending situation...for significantly more money.

It's been an underwhelming offseason to start for a team that was overflowing with salary-cap space and had two first-round picks it seemed to be begging to trade.

Mikael Granlund, Anaheim Ducks

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Mikael Granlund deserves a ton of credit for getting his career back on track in San Jose over the past year and a half, going from a player who looked to be rapidly declining to a strong point-producer.

The Sharks also deserve praise for helping to make that happen by putting the 33-year-old in positions to produce and then being able to flip him for a first-round draft pick. It worked out well for everybody.

It especially worked out for Granlund as he turned that production over a year and a half into a three-year, $21 million contract in free agency with the Anaheim Ducks.

But we don't know how well this is going to work for the Ducks or Granlund.

The biggest factor in the Finn's turnaround with the Sharks is that he got top-line ice time, played big power-play minutes and was put into positions where he would produce points. Even bad teams have leading scorers, and somebody is going to tally up those numbers. In San Jose's case, it was largely Granlund.

After he was traded to Dallas, his production started to drop off again as his ice time and overall role decreased.

Is he going to get the minutes and role in Anaheim to produce the way he did for the Sharks? And if he doesn't, is he going to do enough away from the puck?

He's a playmaker, first and foremost, and at his best when he's setting people up. He doesn't have a strong defensive presence and isn't really any sort of physical force. He has to produce points to have value.

And in a situation where he might get second-line ice time instead of the first-line variety, Anaheim isn't going to get what it's paying for here.

Tanner Jeannot, Boston Bruins

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The Boston Bruins' offseason got off to a solid start when they traded for Viktor Arvidsson from the Edmonton Oilers. But things quickly went off the rails when they signed Tanner Jeannot to a five-year, $17 million contract in free agency.

The cap hit of $3.4 million per season is high enough for a player who provides zero offense and little else beyond some physical play, but the five-year term, in addition to that for a fourth-line player, is what makes the entire thing seem a little wild.

Jeannot had one breakout year offensively in 2021-22 when he scored 24 goals in 81 games. In the rest of his career, he has scored 25 goals in 212 regular-season games.

Goals are not the be-all and end-all of player analysis, but if you are trying to model a team like Florida, one of its big roster-building advantages was not overpaying for depth players. Every dollar you overspend on the fourth line is one you don't have for the top of the roster.

Little mistakes turn into big mistakes.

Christian Dvorak, Philadelphia Flyers

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The Flyers made some big changes this offseason by bringing in Rick Tocchet as head coach and overhauling their center position by trading for Trevor Zegras and signing Christian Dvorak in free agency.

While the Zegras trade is a potentially high-reward gamble, signing Dvorak for more than $5 million just seems like an excessive overpay for what he provides.

The good news: It is only a one-year deal. So if it flops or doesn't pay off, the Flyers can easily move on after the season.

This is one of the issues with free agency. Dvorak, 29, has some value as a player and isn't an empty roster spot. He wins a ton of faceoffs, he can kill penalties and has some offense to him. But is his value a $5 million player, even under an increased salary cap? It seems a lot.

Cody Ceci, Los Angeles Kings

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Ken Holland's first offseason running the Los Angeles Kings has not had an inspiring start. He hasn't done much to upgrade a middle-of-the-pack offense, and he completely overhauled the team's one big strength, its defense. Not necessarily for the better, either.

Along with losing Vladislav Gavrikov in free agency, he also traded Jordan Spence to Ottawa and then made two long-term free-agent signings in Cody Ceci and Brian Dumoulin.

Both of those could have made the list, with Ceci getting four years and $18 million and Dumoulin getting three years and $12 million.

Ceci makes the cut, though, because he has an extra year, a slightly higher salary-cap number ($4.5 million versus $4 million) and is likely to get a bigger role. Because he always gets a bigger role. On every team he plays on.

Every team seems to think it's going to be the one to get the most out of the 31-year-old and turn his career around. Teams give him in a big role, and the results turn out badly.

Ceci could be a useful player as a sheltered, third-pairing defender who does not get asked to play big minutes against other teams' best players.

If the Kings play him in that role, then they have badly overpaid him.

If they play him in a role that fits his contract, they are not likely to get a strong return on that investment.

Holland would have been better off paying Gavrikov $7-8 million per season and not signing either of these players.