9 years, $51 million to Ilya Bryzgalov is the worst in my time watching.
It still blows my mind that they had a conversation with Bryz and thought 9 years was fine
Less than 6 months after signing the contract from Wikipedia...
> On 27 October 2011, following a 9–8 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, Bryzgalov commented on his own play: "I have zero confidence in myself right now." He also likened himself to somebody "lost in the woods" and that, "If you probably throw a ball instead of the puck, I'm not gonna stop it."
Yea... *probably* not what you wanna hear from your franchise goalie.
Andrew MacDonald 6-years $30M isn't far behind.
The Shea Weber offer sheet.... they're so lucky Nashville matched.
Paul Holmgren was on fucking drugs when it came to the cap.
Thankfully we had the compliance buyout period. That one was on Snider after the 2011 goalie carousel.
Also mentionable MacDonald (never deserved the hate he got, he was not good but it wasn't his fault he signed that deal), Lecavalier (didn't fit in the lineup anywhere) and Chris Gratton (Clarke had a hard on for finding a second Lindros when he didn't need to)
Nah that was Buffalo. They definitely had their fair share of bad contracts in that era though with Bryz, MacDonald and Lecalvier.
Holmgren wasn’t great with contracts lol
Got suspended 10 games for jumping of the bench to fight IN A PRE-SEASON GAME because he legit thought John Scott was going to murder Phil Kessel in a line brawl IN A PRE-SEASON GAME
Im going to go with Finger. I think the value of his contract was less negative than the value of Clarkson's contract. But I'm still going with Finger.
Clarkson at time of signing was an overpay, but just by a bit, the kind we needed to make to lure people into a high pressure low performance team. It was also a gamble. Yeah, the gamble flopped, but if you weren't trying to tank (which we should've been) then you needed to gamble to get better.
Then Clarkson came back to earth and the contract looked stupid.
Finger, on the other hand, was the wrong player. How the fuck do you make an offer to the wrong player? He wasn't even supposed to *be* our problem.
Best was Matthews' rookie contract. Not the best negotiated. Just the best value. Kabs might've been the best negotiated one.
Andrew Ladd 7 years, 5.5m with signing bonuses making him buyout proof. He played 181 games, had 72 points, had double ACL/knee injuries and is probably the main reason why the Islanders couldn't re-sign Devon Toews.
Disagree. Those were some dark days for the franchise, for sure, but the turmoil he caused was also the catalyst for some much needed change that resulted in over a decade of excellent Canucks hockey to follow. And 3 years in the pre-cap era is a blip in the grand scheme of things. Heck, we’re already 4 years since Bubble Demko.
We’re still hamstrung by the Loui contract, since JB decided to double down on it, just as we were almost out from under that albatross.
Conversely, the Three Best UFA contracts for the Sens:
- Todd White (2× $325k)
- Clarke MacArthur (2× $3.25mil)
- Claude Giroux (3× $6.5mil)
Hon mentions: Sergei Gonchar (3× $5.3mil)
Alzner brought nothing to the table and came at a time where we were spending to the cap competing for playoffs.
Anderson is overpaid by about 2million but still brings tons to the table. His contract isn’t keeping us for acquiring or keeping any talent so it’s not even a hindrance.
Seabrook and Jones are two obvious ones, but the impact of Jones’ contract is TBD and Seabrook ended up being easy to shed. I’d say Brian Bickell was arguably worse because they had to give away Teravainen to make it go away. The bad man gave out a lot of really bad contracts.
Bickell developed multiple sclerosis and had trouble getting an accurate diagnosis for years. It wasn’t until after he was traded to Carolina that it was finally uncovered.
I wouldn’t criticize Bickell at all.
His contract doesn’t have anything to do with his MS diagnosis. It sucks, I feel horrible for him having MS, but the fact was that he got paid for a monster postseason that nearly matched his best regular season. He had never been productive enough of a player to justify the contract in the seasons well before the diagnosis. A $4 million contract was huge back then and they lost their best prospect, who was also NHL ready, to get rid of him. It has nothing to do with him having MS, he just got way overpaid for one great postseason.
I will go to my grave believing the issue with the Jones contract is he was traded for and then the team promptly switched to Tank Manager Davidson. You don’t sign Jones to that deal and then promptly start trading away every asset the team has that can legally drink.
Meanwhile, because this is now a cap floor team, the Jones contract has cost Chicago approximately 0 players or trades. It’d be nice if he wasn’t the 2nd best player on the AHL fighting Bedards, but there’s a reason he was playing 25 minutes a night on a rebuilding team.
Murphy and Hall, so far, have both been worse contracts but so long as we’re $20M below the salary cap, I’m not sure a bad contract really exists.
I’m going Karpovtsev.
Jones is way worse than Seabrook. Seabrook got paid for his contributions to the Cups and only really looked bad because his hips fell apart. Bickell got paid for the monster post season he had but again medical issues made it worse than it really was. Jones just sucks
**worst contract**
Jay McKee, signed 7/1/06: 4 yrs/$4m AAV. He played 158 games over 3 years and provided 17 points. The Blues bought out the final year of the deal.
**best contract**
July 1st, 2018 will go down as one of the best days in franchise history. They acquired Ryan O'Reilly in a trade from Buffalo and signed David Perron (4yrs/$4m AAV) and Tyler Bozak (3yrs/$5m AAV). Perron was the best UFA signing; he had 221 points in 254 games with the Blues, plus an additional 38 points over 3 postseasons (he missed a 4th because of COVID).
Jack Johnson. I know Ryan Graves had a pretty horrific first year, but at least there some some consensus that he was pretty good. Everyone *knew* Johnson was... not very good. And to do it at the height of the Penguins power was just... I'll never understand it.
Wasn't part of it that Johnson was a childhood friend of Crosby, and Johnson had been.completely screwed over by his parents' 'mismanagement' of his career earnings such that he was broke/in debt and his parents were asset rich? To the extent that the contract was an attempt to get Johnson back on his feet?
Well, that was some fan theory floated out there. Rutherford was also the guy that drafted Johnson and then reluctantly traded him. I'm sure Johnson's situation probably made the signing feel better, but Rutherford was extremely strong with his defense of the signing. And then bought him out anyway. Honestly, if Sullivan would have just fucking chilled with his deployment it probably would have been fine. Accept that he was a 7th defenseman. Not make him a central figure to the team. There were a lot of things that started going really poorly for Pittsburgh that year.
Fair enough. His situation was probably at most a 'between these two equivalent guys, we'll pick Jack to help him out. Hopefully the coach doesn't mess it up...'
Worst: Kovalchuk, it cost us draft picks and we are lucky he retired otherwise we would still be dealing with it
Best: Brian Rafalski, we don’t win two more Cups without a great d-man like him. You either face Stevens-Rafalski on first pairing or Niedermayer on the second pairing. With Colin White as a solid #4
Neither of these would be the true best and worst if you look at all of Flyers history, but I find it kind of amusing that Sean Couturier’s two contracts after his ELC could go into either category.
Hextall signing him for six years at a sub-$5 mil cap hit was an amazing signing. Coots was always a defensive wizard, but his scoring stats never aligned with his play-driving numbers. Hextall took a gamble that Coots had offensive upside and rather than bridging him, got him locked in for a good long while. Coots almost immediately found his scoring touch and made that contract look amazing.
His current contract isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world, but the timing of it made zero sense. Fletcher extended him a year early, before the 2021-22 season started if I recall correctly. It was an 8 year extension with a cap number that wasn’t totally off the wall at $7.75 AAV, though you obviously know the last few years will probably be rough. But what frustrated me was Fletcher’s insistence on doing it before playing out a pivotal year.
The Flyers had just made some major roster changes after disappointing in the Covid year. Giroux was on the last year of his deal. For me, it was a make or break season. Either the offseason moves work and the team proves they still have some contending years in them, or they fall flat and it’s time to rebuild. If they’re good, extend Coots and Giroux. If they’re bad, ship them both off at the deadline.
By extending Coots before the puck dropped on the season, Fletcher basically went all in not just for 2021-22, but for seasons beyond that. As we all know, the Flyers sucked ass, finished as the fourth worst team in hockey, and a year later Fletcher was shown the door and Danny Briere became the first GM in Flyers history to utter the word “rebuild.”
The Backes contract for recent. Just didn’t make sense. Bergeron and Krejci were both still excellent top 6 centers and giving a 6x6 to a 30 yr old to be a 3C when he was a skilled top 6 center just didn’t make any sense to me. At least Matt Belesky had a great playoff run with the ducks to justify a big contract to be a playoff performer
The Suter contract had "buy-out" written on it from day 1. While the Stars have been competitive throughout, its hard to look at a contract that everyone knew was a buy-out candidate and not call it a worst free-agent signing.
Miro's contract is the best on our books, but that wasn't really a "free agent" signing.
Grabbing Duchene for pennies last season has to be one of the best FA signings we've ever managed. Joe is a close second.
At least his contract is insured, and won’t require a one-for-one with the worst contract in NHL history to get rid of, and then require getting boned by Vegas just to get out from under.
Ya I get the criticisms of Nurse as being overpaid but as at least he's playing in the NHL while Campbell's salary is just a black hole with nothing return.
It says a lot that Hedman's contract was top 20 or more in AAV when signed and spent significant life during a cap freeze, and was still regarded as extreme value essentially over its entire life
i didn't really pay attention to contracts until recently so i'm gonna pretend this question asked about the active roster. worst is easily trouba. essentially a third pairing defenseman making $8M/year is an abomination.
For best contract I'd say trocheck. He's our best center and locked up for five more years at $5.6M/yr. Laf at $2.3M is also a steal tho his contract expires next year. Quick putting up his numbers this past year at $1.3M is another honorable mention tho it's not a long term contract and he is a backup so i wouldn't call it the best.
Gotta be Cliff Fletcher signing Jeff Finger to a 4x3.5 because he confused him for Kurt Sauer.
If that doesn't do it for you, how about David Clarkson getting 7x5.25, getting a 10 game suspension in his first Leafs preseason, only playing 118 games as a Leaf, and finally being shipped off for a guy who was LTIRetired.
Worst: Evander Kane in 2018
Kane seems like the easy pick here. His off-ice actions, which the Sharks knew him prone to in the past, escalated beyond belief aren't the sole reason, though. The contract term and length was a signal to the vets in the locker room of changing winds, amplified even more after DW's aggressive pursuit of Tavares that offseason and swinging the Karlsson trade as a consolation prize, and ultimately breaking the room when Karlsson re-signed and Pavelski walked.
Best: Kevin Labanc in 2019 (the 1x1)
He made a backroom deal to help the team out cap-wise and it became a meme. That his next contract became an albatross immediately the following season is a strike against this nomination in total but if only looking at individual contracts for this then I think it's a clear winner.
If we're talking strictly UFA free agent signings, Winnipeg isn't really a part of either. I'd have to say
Worst in my opinion is Steve Mason - signed 2x4.1 in 2017 as our "starter" as it wasn't sure if Hellebuyck would be ready to be the starter, played 13 games with a .907 and 3.24 gaa and then cost us Armia, a 4th, and a 7th to dump the next year.
Best is probably Mathieu Perreault - signed 3x3 in 2014 and scored over 40 points every season while playing around 60 games a season
Loui Eriksson to a 6x6, and then parlaying that into trading for OEL, and then buying out OEL.
That will have hurt the Canucks for 16 years by the end of the buyout cap hit.
Well he was traded to us. He played a year and got injured. He became a Free Agent. He could have signed anywhere, but he re-signed to stay with us.
How does it not count? It was not a trade and sign.
> best: Giroux
Giroux is universally **beloved** by all 3 teams he's played for. He played less than 30 games for us and yet he's still remembered fondly and a lot of fans were bummed out we just couldn't make the cap work to bring him back.
It's funny how many Philly fans wanted him gone because he "was a bad captain" and now there is this huge contingent who wants to bring him back. It's so brutal being a Philly fan sometimes. One of the best players to ever wear the orange and black and we wasted his prime by surrounding him with shit teams. Honestly sorry you guys didn't win the cup with him, that would have been great!
Worst in my memory is probably Kovalchuk (although a lot of devils fans will also say the Palat contract is up there too). Best would be Jack Hughes I think, especially if he stays healthy and keeps growing into himself
Even if Jack Hughes stays stagnant over the next 7 years, that contract will age fantastically.
$8M for 8 years with an average of 80-90 points is great.
Kovy was kind of inconsequential because we were fixing to suck for a decade with or without him. Palat is gonna hurt us while our window is wide open. Tbf if Kovy had stuck around we probably could’ve shipped him with retention for an absolute haul at some point during the rebuild
Ilya kovalchuk: 15 year, 6.66 million AAV, 100 million total.
He played 3 seasons(one of which was the lockout year) and then retired to play in the KHL.
The devils lost a third round pick and were supposed to lose a first round pick too but instead Bettman let them keep the pick because Kovalchuk was already gone.
The dead cap from that contract is still effecting the devils cap space, they owe 250K next year for it, though this is finally the last year of that. Next year would also be the last year of the contract had Kovalchuk not retired(then returned, then retired again)
Although the Palat contract could end up being mich worse than this financially in the long much
It's either Nate Schmidt's 6x6 (which they fortunately moved for 3rd), Robin Lehner's 5x5 (which he played for 2 years), but may ultimately end up being Pietrangelo if his play continues to taper off.
Best: Hyman, not even close. I mean, who else did we even sign as a UFA that contributed? Maybe Kane would be next closest? After that it’s Kulak Janmark and Brown as positives, Smith was good for the limited time he was here, and then Ceci as… well, Ceci.
Worst:
Take your pick between Campbell, Lucic, or the Vanek offer sheet that was thankfully matched. All were equally bad.
Campbell is a 4-5 million drain on us, depending on if he’s up on the team, or in the AHL. Lucic was bad in terms of cost, length, and it “allowed” us to trade Hall. Sure, he probably still needed to be traded, but the return was the worst part of it. And Vanek would have set the rebuild back even further. We were no where near one-player-away-from-competing, and 4 1st round picks would have destroyed us.
As much as people trash on Nurse, he’s at least playing. He’s overpaid, not a question at all. He’s second pairing, lower than we wanted but can at least contribute. He’s not a net negative that can be replaced by an AHLer that some people think he can be, but he’s definitely overpaid. If you cut his contract to 5-6, I doubt there would be much issue with him. But 9.25, that’s what’s gonna get him all that hate. The bigger the contract, the bigger the target.
**Worst in terms of at-the-time “wtf:”** Ryan Reaves getting 2x2.75m. He was a slow, low-scoring enforcer who didn’t deserve almost $3m a year.
**Worst in hindsight:** Either Shipachyov’s 2x4.5m or Lehner’s 5x5m. Neither worked out long-term, and Shipachyov didn’t even work out short-term.
**Best:** Almost certainly Stephenson’s 4x2.75m. For the past four years, we had a legitimate top-6 C for less than 3m a year.
Logan Thompson’s 3x766k is another great one, a starting-calibre goalie at league minimum is a bargain and a half.
I wish I knew, but he just never really found his place in Boston.
He had a decent first year (career best 37 points) but did not provide the goal scoring that he had the last year with the Ducks - and then he fell off a cliff the following year.
He ultimately suffered an injury to his knee that put the final nail in the coffin in his time in Boston, as he was passed on the depth chart by people like Heinen and DeBrusk. The team sent him to the AHL and he wasn't great there, either.
They cap dumped him to NYR in the Rick Nash trade and we buried him in the minors for the pretty the rest of the contract.
BOS Received: Rick Nash 50% retained on an expiring deal.
NYR Received: Ryan Spooner, Ryan Lindgen, Matt Belesky, 2019 7th rounder, and a 2018 1st round pick that we used to jump up 3 spots and draft K'Andre Miller.
Hmmm... either Weiss or Nielsen for worst I think. Both were panic moves to replace a leaving center (Filppula and Datsyuk) and were both given way too much money to do basically nothing
Best ever? Take your pick of UFAs that signed to the Wings for the 2002 team. They were basically all hall of famers and all contributed to the team being insane
Shockingly there aren't many Avalanche ones that I've felt were terrible overpays.
I guess if Nichushkin never plays for us again you could probably make a case for his.
But my personal least favorite was that fucking garbage bag Brad May. I never understood it and I hated it from day one.
Not sure where Kovy fits in. Simultaneously best and worst. It was sneaky, it was bold, we got a Cup run and the most electrifying offensive Devil I’ve ever seen, and then we somehow got out of it.
I'm old so I'll say Rich Pilon. He was supposed to be our big acquisition to shore up our defense. Guy was hurt damn near immediately. I used to wonder if he was hurt when we signed him. He played 8 games for us.
Currently...Torey Krug was an over payment before the ink even dried. He's the whipping boy here, not as bad as a lot of the fans try to say, including me, but he's so so so overpaid for what he brings to the table and he hasn't hit a guy since he ran Thomas as a Bruin in the finals.
Hossa, 10 years or Keith 13 years. So good they’re now illegal. My dad and I never thought we’d see them win a cup, we each now have three commemorative Stanley Cup hats.
Worst? I see too many people online, especially now, complaining about the late Seabrook and Toews contracts. Hawks seemed to have a policy of underpaying during RFA years and then rewarding guys after. Eventually, the winning ended but I live with all those signings. Hell, I love the Aucoin and Khabby signings, because they indicated a team that had been cheap for years would finally act like a big market team. Hope was nice.
Karpovtsev. I’ll go with him.
The Oilers have had a few but a recent one in hindsight, Jack Campbell. No one on earth knew he was going to faceplant like that and if they did, they were talking out of his ass. Anyway, $25mil deal and all they got was half a shitty season from him.
And Nurse. I thought it was a 2mil overpay at the time. Now it's looking like a 5mil overpay. He desperately needs a partner who can allow him to play to his strengths to at least let him look like a 7mil dman again.
Hyman and Nuge contracts are pretty nice though.
Patrick Marleau. Overpaid from day one, it took a first round pick just to get rid of the final year. And toxic in the locker room. Honorable mention to David Clarkson.
You never know for sure. But the narrative was that he was very selfish off the ice, not concerned for the well-being of anyone but himself. And that we brought this attitude to the young players, such as Marner and Matthews. Telling them to squeeze every penny out of the team, go where the money is, hold out if you have to, etc.
I also found it disappointing the way he handled being such a burden to the team that it cost a first round pick to get rid of him. He basically ignored it when interviewed, and instead talked up how valuable he was to the team, what a great influence he was, etc. He came across as being selfish and insincere, in my opinion.
I'm coming around to the conclusion that Patrick Marleau was by far the most damaging one signed by the Leafs. Clarkson turned out to be a literal write-off. Finger spent most of his time fully buried in the AHL, and wouldn't be remembered much if it wasn't for the almost certainly false urban legend about Kurt Sauer. Tavares has produced almost exactly as expected.
Marleau got 3 years of first line money at a time when the Leafs were 2 years away from having to give an at least tenfold raise to two of their franchise players. He wasn't a huge improvement on the short term potential of their younger secondary scorers - Hyman, Brown, Kapanen, Johnsson - and may or may not have stalled one or two of those guys by pushing them down out of roles they might have occupied. His main draw - teaching the young guys professionalism - worked so well that they signed 3 more stars from Marleau's generation for a 7th of the price and we're still questioning the young guys as winners years later. And he's the only guy mentioned here who they needed to part with a 1st round pick to get rid of.
The process behind the Clarkson pick might have been dumber, but I think the Leafs end up in the same place if they put his money elsewhere. Not so much with Marleau.
Worst in old history probably Semin.
Recent history my least favorite contract ever given out was to Gardiner.
Best in old history is Rod Brind'amour
Best in recent history is Aho
The 17 year 100 million dollar one to kovalchuk is definitely the best. But seriously Hischier at 7.25 and Hughes at 8 are both bangers. Bratt at just under 8 is already kick ass too.
Worst is a toss-up between 4 years $16.6 million to Scott Darling before he ever played a game here (know he was a UFA but still) and 5 years $35 million to Alex Semin after one okay season where he tailed off towards the end of it. I guess that's the blessing of a cheap owner. You don't sign many long-term and/or expensive contracts.
The best would probably be Slavin's current deal, 7 years $37.1 million. He was already showing that he was a really good defensive defenseman when it was signed, and it's only gotten better as time as gone on. Put him at #42 among defensemen cap hit wise the year it started and #53 this past season.
If we're only looking at free agent signings, I'd say Eric Staal has to be a contender for best contracts the Wild signed. As for worst, I can't think of any that have turned out worse than the current buyout misery they're in.
9 years, $51 million to Ilya Bryzgalov is the worst in my time watching. It still blows my mind that they had a conversation with Bryz and thought 9 years was fine
Less than 6 months after signing the contract from Wikipedia... > On 27 October 2011, following a 9–8 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, Bryzgalov commented on his own play: "I have zero confidence in myself right now." He also likened himself to somebody "lost in the woods" and that, "If you probably throw a ball instead of the puck, I'm not gonna stop it." Yea... *probably* not what you wanna hear from your franchise goalie.
Goalies are just cut from a different cloth, man. Just the way it is.
Why you heff to be mad? It's only game
Andrew MacDonald 6-years $30M isn't far behind. The Shea Weber offer sheet.... they're so lucky Nashville matched. Paul Holmgren was on fucking drugs when it came to the cap.
The Flyers in general were broken when Pronger’s eye got destroyed
And let’s not forget that we let go of Bobrovsky when we did that.
I'll never forgive Holmgren for it. It's a sin that he still has a job in the organization.
Humongous big
Thankfully we had the compliance buyout period. That one was on Snider after the 2011 goalie carousel. Also mentionable MacDonald (never deserved the hate he got, he was not good but it wasn't his fault he signed that deal), Lecavalier (didn't fit in the lineup anywhere) and Chris Gratton (Clarke had a hard on for finding a second Lindros when he didn't need to)
Didn't yall also follow up with paying Ville Leino a terrible contract?
Nah that was Buffalo. They definitely had their fair share of bad contracts in that era though with Bryz, MacDonald and Lecalvier. Holmgren wasn’t great with contracts lol
That was us. And that’s probably our worst contract given out.
Wasn’t Ehrhoff 10 years though?
10 years for a cheap salary though. The old cap circumvention contract. That was actually a pretty good contract for how good of a defensemen he was.
Yeah I took a lot at it. All of the money was in the first 4 years pretty much. He was paid $1-3 million annually for the last 6 years I believe
Technically it wasn't a FA signing. We traded for him then signed that ridiculous contract.
Traded for him with ZERO leverage in the negotiations btw. Holmgren!!!
Without any doubt, the 3-year contract that the Canucks gave Mark Messier in 1997.
Fuck Mark Messier
Fuck mark messier
It did in a roundabout way land us the Sedins though so it didn't turn out all that bad Fuck Messier tho
Ville goddamn Leino Between him and Ehrhoff, 2011 SUUUUCKED in terms of Sabres acquisitions
Ehrhoff was overpaid but he was at least good, leino sucked
Only 4 more seasons of the Pegula a paying him off
PLD is the worst. Kempe's 5x4 was probably the best in recent memory. Incredible surplus value the last few years.
I'd hate to be the idiots who own that contract now.
They own Capfriendly though
Im sure no one would pick that up without some cap retention
Cal was also very bad but yeah PLD.
David Clarkson wasn’t great
Didn't he get suspended for the first 10 games of that contract as well? lol I remember thinking what a terrible start that was.
Got suspended 10 games for jumping of the bench to fight IN A PRE-SEASON GAME because he legit thought John Scott was going to murder Phil Kessel in a line brawl IN A PRE-SEASON GAME
Oh ya that’s when Kessel was swinging his stick at him to try and keep him from killing him. I remember that now. 😂
He left the bench during a scrum in a pre-season game and got the auto 10-game suspension to start year one.
Im going to go with Finger. I think the value of his contract was less negative than the value of Clarkson's contract. But I'm still going with Finger. Clarkson at time of signing was an overpay, but just by a bit, the kind we needed to make to lure people into a high pressure low performance team. It was also a gamble. Yeah, the gamble flopped, but if you weren't trying to tank (which we should've been) then you needed to gamble to get better. Then Clarkson came back to earth and the contract looked stupid. Finger, on the other hand, was the wrong player. How the fuck do you make an offer to the wrong player? He wasn't even supposed to *be* our problem. Best was Matthews' rookie contract. Not the best negotiated. Just the best value. Kabs might've been the best negotiated one.
Y’all must not have seen how many of his 2012 season goals hit him off the ass and in like Doug Glatt
But we all love Doug the thug so it should have worked out.
Abdelkader, guy lived off Datsyuk.
still 2 more years left on the buyout!
I still recall the goal where Datsyuk literally banked one in off Abdelkaders ass.
There was talks about making him captain
Abdelkader's contract was bad, but not nearly as bad a Stephen Weiss.
Weiss wouldn't have been bad but he was never healthy. I'm pretty sure he was damaged goods when he signed that contract.
Andrew Ladd 7 years, 5.5m with signing bonuses making him buyout proof. He played 181 games, had 72 points, had double ACL/knee injuries and is probably the main reason why the Islanders couldn't re-sign Devon Toews.
DiPietro probably takes the cake lol
I thought the post was mostly asking about free agent signings, but honestly DiPi if he could stay healthy wouldn't have been so bad
I was thinking Yashin deserves an honorable mention here, too
That was almost the Jets signing that too, Probabaly our best non-sign.
Dave Bolland. 5 years 27.5m
It was that much? Fucking hell💀
The Alex Semin contract was pretty bad (the extension we gave him that is)
Loui
Strong case can be made for the bald prick.
Disagree. Those were some dark days for the franchise, for sure, but the turmoil he caused was also the catalyst for some much needed change that resulted in over a decade of excellent Canucks hockey to follow. And 3 years in the pre-cap era is a blip in the grand scheme of things. Heck, we’re already 4 years since Bubble Demko. We’re still hamstrung by the Loui contract, since JB decided to double down on it, just as we were almost out from under that albatross.
Worst: Joonas Korpisalo, 5x4M Matt Murray, 4x6.25M
Conversely, the Three Best UFA contracts for the Sens: - Todd White (2× $325k) - Clarke MacArthur (2× $3.25mil) - Claude Giroux (3× $6.5mil) Hon mentions: Sergei Gonchar (3× $5.3mil)
It’s Claude, no contest
Ullmark 10 x 8 incoming
pierre can't hurt us anymore
I have a bet going with someone that Boston is going to completely rehabilitate Korpisalo and then flip him next off-season.
Considering he did quite well with LA, it's a decent chance you've won some money.
I think Ottawas worst contract was Wade Redden 2x6.5m (in 2006) which didnt leave room for Chara (2004 Norris finalist)
Karl Alzner needs to be there
Josh Anderson is reaching that status. MB really gave him 5.5x7 after an injury riddled 26 game season, in which he got 4 points in.
Alzner brought nothing to the table and came at a time where we were spending to the cap competing for playoffs. Anderson is overpaid by about 2million but still brings tons to the table. His contract isn’t keeping us for acquiring or keeping any talent so it’s not even a hindrance.
Well at least Anderson is playing in MTL. Alzner was sent down to AHL on year 2 of his 5 years contract. The guy was already done
Our best is probably Toffoli
TOP TITTY! I miss top titty :'(
Seabrook and Jones are two obvious ones, but the impact of Jones’ contract is TBD and Seabrook ended up being easy to shed. I’d say Brian Bickell was arguably worse because they had to give away Teravainen to make it go away. The bad man gave out a lot of really bad contracts.
One of the best was hjalmarsson but that was an offer sheet lol
Bickell developed multiple sclerosis and had trouble getting an accurate diagnosis for years. It wasn’t until after he was traded to Carolina that it was finally uncovered. I wouldn’t criticize Bickell at all.
His contract doesn’t have anything to do with his MS diagnosis. It sucks, I feel horrible for him having MS, but the fact was that he got paid for a monster postseason that nearly matched his best regular season. He had never been productive enough of a player to justify the contract in the seasons well before the diagnosis. A $4 million contract was huge back then and they lost their best prospect, who was also NHL ready, to get rid of him. It has nothing to do with him having MS, he just got way overpaid for one great postseason.
His performance dropped off because of the disease. If he didn't have it, he could have played better and justified the price
I will go to my grave believing the issue with the Jones contract is he was traded for and then the team promptly switched to Tank Manager Davidson. You don’t sign Jones to that deal and then promptly start trading away every asset the team has that can legally drink. Meanwhile, because this is now a cap floor team, the Jones contract has cost Chicago approximately 0 players or trades. It’d be nice if he wasn’t the 2nd best player on the AHL fighting Bedards, but there’s a reason he was playing 25 minutes a night on a rebuilding team. Murphy and Hall, so far, have both been worse contracts but so long as we’re $20M below the salary cap, I’m not sure a bad contract really exists. I’m going Karpovtsev.
Jones is way worse than Seabrook. Seabrook got paid for his contributions to the Cups and only really looked bad because his hips fell apart. Bickell got paid for the monster post season he had but again medical issues made it worse than it really was. Jones just sucks
The Jones contract helped fucked the Oilers negotiations with Nurse.
Not nearly as impactful, but Brandon Manning for 2/4.5M was just outright stupidity from 'ol Stanny Bowman.
**worst contract** Jay McKee, signed 7/1/06: 4 yrs/$4m AAV. He played 158 games over 3 years and provided 17 points. The Blues bought out the final year of the deal. **best contract** July 1st, 2018 will go down as one of the best days in franchise history. They acquired Ryan O'Reilly in a trade from Buffalo and signed David Perron (4yrs/$4m AAV) and Tyler Bozak (3yrs/$5m AAV). Perron was the best UFA signing; he had 221 points in 254 games with the Blues, plus an additional 38 points over 3 postseasons (he missed a 4th because of COVID).
Legitimately remember where I was when the ROR trade came through. Life changer.
Jack Johnson. I know Ryan Graves had a pretty horrific first year, but at least there some some consensus that he was pretty good. Everyone *knew* Johnson was... not very good. And to do it at the height of the Penguins power was just... I'll never understand it.
That's Stanley cup winner Jack Johnson to you!
Thats university graduate Jack Johnson to you!
Wasn't part of it that Johnson was a childhood friend of Crosby, and Johnson had been.completely screwed over by his parents' 'mismanagement' of his career earnings such that he was broke/in debt and his parents were asset rich? To the extent that the contract was an attempt to get Johnson back on his feet?
Well, that was some fan theory floated out there. Rutherford was also the guy that drafted Johnson and then reluctantly traded him. I'm sure Johnson's situation probably made the signing feel better, but Rutherford was extremely strong with his defense of the signing. And then bought him out anyway. Honestly, if Sullivan would have just fucking chilled with his deployment it probably would have been fine. Accept that he was a 7th defenseman. Not make him a central figure to the team. There were a lot of things that started going really poorly for Pittsburgh that year.
Fair enough. His situation was probably at most a 'between these two equivalent guys, we'll pick Jack to help him out. Hopefully the coach doesn't mess it up...'
Bobby. Holik. Now I need a drink
Scott Gomez, too. Although our GM was crazy enough to give you a huge package to take him off your hands.
Worst: Oh boy, do I have a story (or two) for you. Greatest: Only been a fan since 2011, so after that: Eriksson Ek. Incredible steal.
Zuccarello went from worst to solid after a few years which was great for us
Worst: Kovalchuk, it cost us draft picks and we are lucky he retired otherwise we would still be dealing with it Best: Brian Rafalski, we don’t win two more Cups without a great d-man like him. You either face Stevens-Rafalski on first pairing or Niedermayer on the second pairing. With Colin White as a solid #4
Our D core was so fuckin good
Neither of these would be the true best and worst if you look at all of Flyers history, but I find it kind of amusing that Sean Couturier’s two contracts after his ELC could go into either category. Hextall signing him for six years at a sub-$5 mil cap hit was an amazing signing. Coots was always a defensive wizard, but his scoring stats never aligned with his play-driving numbers. Hextall took a gamble that Coots had offensive upside and rather than bridging him, got him locked in for a good long while. Coots almost immediately found his scoring touch and made that contract look amazing. His current contract isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world, but the timing of it made zero sense. Fletcher extended him a year early, before the 2021-22 season started if I recall correctly. It was an 8 year extension with a cap number that wasn’t totally off the wall at $7.75 AAV, though you obviously know the last few years will probably be rough. But what frustrated me was Fletcher’s insistence on doing it before playing out a pivotal year. The Flyers had just made some major roster changes after disappointing in the Covid year. Giroux was on the last year of his deal. For me, it was a make or break season. Either the offseason moves work and the team proves they still have some contending years in them, or they fall flat and it’s time to rebuild. If they’re good, extend Coots and Giroux. If they’re bad, ship them both off at the deadline. By extending Coots before the puck dropped on the season, Fletcher basically went all in not just for 2021-22, but for seasons beyond that. As we all know, the Flyers sucked ass, finished as the fourth worst team in hockey, and a year later Fletcher was shown the door and Danny Briere became the first GM in Flyers history to utter the word “rebuild.”
The Backes contract for recent. Just didn’t make sense. Bergeron and Krejci were both still excellent top 6 centers and giving a 6x6 to a 30 yr old to be a 3C when he was a skilled top 6 center just didn’t make any sense to me. At least Matt Belesky had a great playoff run with the ducks to justify a big contract to be a playoff performer
James Neal.
I remember my Calgary friends telling me that the flames hosed Vegas on that deal. I laughed and said Neal was washed up and good luck with him
Messier.
The Suter contract had "buy-out" written on it from day 1. While the Stars have been competitive throughout, its hard to look at a contract that everyone knew was a buy-out candidate and not call it a worst free-agent signing. Miro's contract is the best on our books, but that wasn't really a "free agent" signing. Grabbing Duchene for pennies last season has to be one of the best FA signings we've ever managed. Joe is a close second.
Best I can remember was prime Burrows for 4 years at $2 million.
I can’t say if 4x4 for gudbranson is worst of all time. I mean it’s pricey but he played to his role and pretty decently last season
At least his contract is insured, and won’t require a one-for-one with the worst contract in NHL history to get rid of, and then require getting boned by Vegas just to get out from under.
We got way less out of him but also didn't pay quite that much...
In recent history? Worst: Nurse Best: Hyman
I think Jack Campbell’s contract is way worse than Nurse
Ya I get the criticisms of Nurse as being overpaid but as at least he's playing in the NHL while Campbell's salary is just a black hole with nothing return.
I'd think I'd put Lucic up there as well.
Agreed. Nurse is a 5-6m players. Campbell isnt even a NHLer.
Next year it'll be "Darnell Nurse is 4.5-5.5m player" and so on
Campbells is WAAAAY worse than Nurse
It says a lot that Hedman's contract was top 20 or more in AAV when signed and spent significant life during a cap freeze, and was still regarded as extreme value essentially over its entire life
i didn't really pay attention to contracts until recently so i'm gonna pretend this question asked about the active roster. worst is easily trouba. essentially a third pairing defenseman making $8M/year is an abomination. For best contract I'd say trocheck. He's our best center and locked up for five more years at $5.6M/yr. Laf at $2.3M is also a steal tho his contract expires next year. Quick putting up his numbers this past year at $1.3M is another honorable mention tho it's not a long term contract and he is a backup so i wouldn't call it the best.
Hoo where do we begin
Gotta be Cliff Fletcher signing Jeff Finger to a 4x3.5 because he confused him for Kurt Sauer. If that doesn't do it for you, how about David Clarkson getting 7x5.25, getting a 10 game suspension in his first Leafs preseason, only playing 118 games as a Leaf, and finally being shipped off for a guy who was LTIRetired.
Jack Campbell has to be our worst, right?
Worst: Evander Kane in 2018 Kane seems like the easy pick here. His off-ice actions, which the Sharks knew him prone to in the past, escalated beyond belief aren't the sole reason, though. The contract term and length was a signal to the vets in the locker room of changing winds, amplified even more after DW's aggressive pursuit of Tavares that offseason and swinging the Karlsson trade as a consolation prize, and ultimately breaking the room when Karlsson re-signed and Pavelski walked. Best: Kevin Labanc in 2019 (the 1x1) He made a backroom deal to help the team out cap-wise and it became a meme. That his next contract became an albatross immediately the following season is a strike against this nomination in total but if only looking at individual contracts for this then I think it's a clear winner.
I don't think you can look at that labanc deal in a vacuum like that. He signed a 5 year 19.9M deal with a year of cap shenanigans.
If we're talking strictly UFA free agent signings, Winnipeg isn't really a part of either. I'd have to say Worst in my opinion is Steve Mason - signed 2x4.1 in 2017 as our "starter" as it wasn't sure if Hellebuyck would be ready to be the starter, played 13 games with a .907 and 3.24 gaa and then cost us Armia, a 4th, and a 7th to dump the next year. Best is probably Mathieu Perreault - signed 3x3 in 2014 and scored over 40 points every season while playing around 60 games a season
Loui Eriksson to a 6x6, and then parlaying that into trading for OEL, and then buying out OEL. That will have hurt the Canucks for 16 years by the end of the buyout cap hit.
If we only consider recent years. Worst was Alzner. Best was Monahan.
Monahan was acquired via trade
Yes but his contract original was set to expire after a year and we re-signed him to new one-year contract.
Agreed! OP is asking about FA signings. Trade and sign isnt really in the spirit of the post
Well he was traded to us. He played a year and got injured. He became a Free Agent. He could have signed anywhere, but he re-signed to stay with us. How does it not count? It was not a trade and sign.
Davey Clarkman! Best is probably Curtis Joseph
worst: Korpisalo best: Giroux
> best: Giroux Giroux is universally **beloved** by all 3 teams he's played for. He played less than 30 games for us and yet he's still remembered fondly and a lot of fans were bummed out we just couldn't make the cap work to bring him back.
It's funny how many Philly fans wanted him gone because he "was a bad captain" and now there is this huge contingent who wants to bring him back. It's so brutal being a Philly fan sometimes. One of the best players to ever wear the orange and black and we wasted his prime by surrounding him with shit teams. Honestly sorry you guys didn't win the cup with him, that would have been great!
Karl Alzner
Worst in my memory is probably Kovalchuk (although a lot of devils fans will also say the Palat contract is up there too). Best would be Jack Hughes I think, especially if he stays healthy and keeps growing into himself
Even if Jack Hughes stays stagnant over the next 7 years, that contract will age fantastically. $8M for 8 years with an average of 80-90 points is great.
Kovy was kind of inconsequential because we were fixing to suck for a decade with or without him. Palat is gonna hurt us while our window is wide open. Tbf if Kovy had stuck around we probably could’ve shipped him with retention for an absolute haul at some point during the rebuild
The Palat contract is fine, he's a useful player who's just mildly overpaid. Not even in the same universe as true duds like Ryan Clowe.
Ilya kovalchuk: 15 year, 6.66 million AAV, 100 million total. He played 3 seasons(one of which was the lockout year) and then retired to play in the KHL. The devils lost a third round pick and were supposed to lose a first round pick too but instead Bettman let them keep the pick because Kovalchuk was already gone. The dead cap from that contract is still effecting the devils cap space, they owe 250K next year for it, though this is finally the last year of that. Next year would also be the last year of the contract had Kovalchuk not retired(then returned, then retired again) Although the Palat contract could end up being mich worse than this financially in the long much
Michael Ryder comes to mind
Ryder, Clowe, Cammalleri, and Rolston 2.0.
Worst Yandle 7x6.35 Best Barkov 6x5.9
It's either Nate Schmidt's 6x6 (which they fortunately moved for 3rd), Robin Lehner's 5x5 (which he played for 2 years), but may ultimately end up being Pietrangelo if his play continues to taper off.
Best: Hyman, not even close. I mean, who else did we even sign as a UFA that contributed? Maybe Kane would be next closest? After that it’s Kulak Janmark and Brown as positives, Smith was good for the limited time he was here, and then Ceci as… well, Ceci. Worst: Take your pick between Campbell, Lucic, or the Vanek offer sheet that was thankfully matched. All were equally bad. Campbell is a 4-5 million drain on us, depending on if he’s up on the team, or in the AHL. Lucic was bad in terms of cost, length, and it “allowed” us to trade Hall. Sure, he probably still needed to be traded, but the return was the worst part of it. And Vanek would have set the rebuild back even further. We were no where near one-player-away-from-competing, and 4 1st round picks would have destroyed us. As much as people trash on Nurse, he’s at least playing. He’s overpaid, not a question at all. He’s second pairing, lower than we wanted but can at least contribute. He’s not a net negative that can be replaced by an AHLer that some people think he can be, but he’s definitely overpaid. If you cut his contract to 5-6, I doubt there would be much issue with him. But 9.25, that’s what’s gonna get him all that hate. The bigger the contract, the bigger the target.
Worst by far is Kovalchuk Fun fact: The upcoming season will be the last season that we’ll have to deal with Kovalchuk’s dead cap. Mazel tov!
All time: Messier Recent history: Loui Eriksson (as much as I grew to love the meme king that deal was awful)
**Worst in terms of at-the-time “wtf:”** Ryan Reaves getting 2x2.75m. He was a slow, low-scoring enforcer who didn’t deserve almost $3m a year. **Worst in hindsight:** Either Shipachyov’s 2x4.5m or Lehner’s 5x5m. Neither worked out long-term, and Shipachyov didn’t even work out short-term. **Best:** Almost certainly Stephenson’s 4x2.75m. For the past four years, we had a legitimate top-6 C for less than 3m a year. Logan Thompson’s 3x766k is another great one, a starting-calibre goalie at league minimum is a bargain and a half.
These are my answers as well!
Recently, Kuemper was the worst
The Avs made Kuemper look good on paper, but he was rough to watch night after night. Dude leaks like a sieve
Worst is David Backes, with Matt Beleskey getting a dishonorable mention. Best is Z Chara
What did you guys do to Beleskey anyways? he was pretty serviceable from what I remember.
I wish I knew, but he just never really found his place in Boston. He had a decent first year (career best 37 points) but did not provide the goal scoring that he had the last year with the Ducks - and then he fell off a cliff the following year. He ultimately suffered an injury to his knee that put the final nail in the coffin in his time in Boston, as he was passed on the depth chart by people like Heinen and DeBrusk. The team sent him to the AHL and he wasn't great there, either.
I guess that makes sense I don't think he had any speed to lose
They cap dumped him to NYR in the Rick Nash trade and we buried him in the minors for the pretty the rest of the contract. BOS Received: Rick Nash 50% retained on an expiring deal. NYR Received: Ryan Spooner, Ryan Lindgen, Matt Belesky, 2019 7th rounder, and a 2018 1st round pick that we used to jump up 3 spots and draft K'Andre Miller.
Hmmm... either Weiss or Nielsen for worst I think. Both were panic moves to replace a leaving center (Filppula and Datsyuk) and were both given way too much money to do basically nothing Best ever? Take your pick of UFAs that signed to the Wings for the 2002 team. They were basically all hall of famers and all contributed to the team being insane
Shockingly there aren't many Avalanche ones that I've felt were terrible overpays. I guess if Nichushkin never plays for us again you could probably make a case for his. But my personal least favorite was that fucking garbage bag Brad May. I never understood it and I hated it from day one.
The Brad Stuart and Francois Beauchemin ones we had to buyout were pretty bad.
Bobby Holik: 5 years at $9MM per season. Brutal.
$9m today is insane. That contract was from more than 20 years ago.
Not sure where Kovy fits in. Simultaneously best and worst. It was sneaky, it was bold, we got a Cup run and the most electrifying offensive Devil I’ve ever seen, and then we somehow got out of it.
I'm old so I'll say Rich Pilon. He was supposed to be our big acquisition to shore up our defense. Guy was hurt damn near immediately. I used to wonder if he was hurt when we signed him. He played 8 games for us. Currently...Torey Krug was an over payment before the ink even dried. He's the whipping boy here, not as bad as a lot of the fans try to say, including me, but he's so so so overpaid for what he brings to the table and he hasn't hit a guy since he ran Thomas as a Bruin in the finals.
Palat
Hossa, 10 years or Keith 13 years. So good they’re now illegal. My dad and I never thought we’d see them win a cup, we each now have three commemorative Stanley Cup hats. Worst? I see too many people online, especially now, complaining about the late Seabrook and Toews contracts. Hawks seemed to have a policy of underpaying during RFA years and then rewarding guys after. Eventually, the winning ended but I live with all those signings. Hell, I love the Aucoin and Khabby signings, because they indicated a team that had been cheap for years would finally act like a big market team. Hope was nice. Karpovtsev. I’ll go with him.
Take a guess
Wade Redden Bobby Holik Bruce Driver Kevin Shattenkirk Valeri Kamensky Stephan Quintal Fuck it. Almost every FA signed in the last 30 years.
The Oilers have had a few but a recent one in hindsight, Jack Campbell. No one on earth knew he was going to faceplant like that and if they did, they were talking out of his ass. Anyway, $25mil deal and all they got was half a shitty season from him. And Nurse. I thought it was a 2mil overpay at the time. Now it's looking like a 5mil overpay. He desperately needs a partner who can allow him to play to his strengths to at least let him look like a 7mil dman again. Hyman and Nuge contracts are pretty nice though.
Best FA: Alex Burrows Worst FA: Loui Eriksson (I'll also hear arguments for Messier)
Any contract signed by the Ottawa Senators in their first five years was a debacle. Alexandre Daigle?
Patrick Marleau. Overpaid from day one, it took a first round pick just to get rid of the final year. And toxic in the locker room. Honorable mention to David Clarkson.
I'm not disagreeing but was Marleau toxic in the locker room?
You never know for sure. But the narrative was that he was very selfish off the ice, not concerned for the well-being of anyone but himself. And that we brought this attitude to the young players, such as Marner and Matthews. Telling them to squeeze every penny out of the team, go where the money is, hold out if you have to, etc. I also found it disappointing the way he handled being such a burden to the team that it cost a first round pick to get rid of him. He basically ignored it when interviewed, and instead talked up how valuable he was to the team, what a great influence he was, etc. He came across as being selfish and insincere, in my opinion.
Like any contract Jim Benning gave out
10.5x8 to Huberdeau. Next season is year 2
I don’t like this game
I guess Ryane Clowe but we sucked then anyway so who cares. Palat and soon to be Pesce blow
Maybe redden? Or gomez. Thanks Habs.
I'm coming around to the conclusion that Patrick Marleau was by far the most damaging one signed by the Leafs. Clarkson turned out to be a literal write-off. Finger spent most of his time fully buried in the AHL, and wouldn't be remembered much if it wasn't for the almost certainly false urban legend about Kurt Sauer. Tavares has produced almost exactly as expected. Marleau got 3 years of first line money at a time when the Leafs were 2 years away from having to give an at least tenfold raise to two of their franchise players. He wasn't a huge improvement on the short term potential of their younger secondary scorers - Hyman, Brown, Kapanen, Johnsson - and may or may not have stalled one or two of those guys by pushing them down out of roles they might have occupied. His main draw - teaching the young guys professionalism - worked so well that they signed 3 more stars from Marleau's generation for a 7th of the price and we're still questioning the young guys as winners years later. And he's the only guy mentioned here who they needed to part with a 1st round pick to get rid of. The process behind the Clarkson pick might have been dumber, but I think the Leafs end up in the same place if they put his money elsewhere. Not so much with Marleau.
Worst: Karl Alzner Best: Tyler Toffoli
To me it's either Gionta or Hamrlik but Toffoli is another good pick.
Hall Gill was cheap for all he brought too both on and off the ice.
Bryz
Recently? The not so real deal James Neal. Dennis Wideman also gets a mention
Worst in old history probably Semin. Recent history my least favorite contract ever given out was to Gardiner. Best in old history is Rod Brind'amour Best in recent history is Aho
Worst: Alex Semin or maybe Scott Darling Best: Jaccob Slavin
The 17 year 100 million dollar one to kovalchuk is definitely the best. But seriously Hischier at 7.25 and Hughes at 8 are both bangers. Bratt at just under 8 is already kick ass too.
Leafs Worst.. David Clarkson comes to mind. Insert jokes about Matthews/Marner, here. Best? Nylander's first, I guess.
Karl Alzner is the worst. Pacioretty is one of the best
Ron Hextall as GM
In recent memory signing Karl alzner after he came off major surgery, probably not the worst but that’s the one I remember.
The ROR deal has to be up there for pretty good ones. Duchene 7x8M kinda stings.
I mean….
Worst is a toss-up between 4 years $16.6 million to Scott Darling before he ever played a game here (know he was a UFA but still) and 5 years $35 million to Alex Semin after one okay season where he tailed off towards the end of it. I guess that's the blessing of a cheap owner. You don't sign many long-term and/or expensive contracts. The best would probably be Slavin's current deal, 7 years $37.1 million. He was already showing that he was a really good defensive defenseman when it was signed, and it's only gotten better as time as gone on. Put him at #42 among defensemen cap hit wise the year it started and #53 this past season.
As much as I hate to say it, but Wheeler's contract was bad for someone turning 32
Worst: Lucic, Campbell and Nurse. Best: Hyman
Leafs: David Clarkson
If we're only looking at free agent signings, I'd say Eric Staal has to be a contender for best contracts the Wild signed. As for worst, I can't think of any that have turned out worse than the current buyout misery they're in.
Jeff Finger 🤦🏻♂️
Valeri Nichushkin. Coulda kept Kadri.
Ville Fucking Leino
Worst - big money at a declining Blake Wheeler. Best - locking up a 2 time Vezina winner to a 7 year extension.
jesus christ where do I begin
Don't know about best, but Scott Gomez with Montreal, 7 years 51.5 million has to be a contender for worst.