10 Worst NHL Contracts
When the NHL decided to implement a salary cap after the 2004-05 lockout, there were bound to be some bad contracts. One would think that eventually general managers would get the hang of it and stop handing out absurd amounts of money to players who don’t live up the expectations. Naturally, there are expensive contracts in the NHL that are well worth the price, but it’s the bad ones that stand out, and there have been so many bad ones that it is tough to narrow it down to just 10. When considering both the cap hit and term of the contract, the player’s age when the contract terminates, the players’ productive trajectory and his injury history, these are my top 10 picks for the worst current contract in the NHL. I wanted to stick with players who are playing or who have the possibility of returning so players like Dave Bolland, Nathan Horton, and David Clarkson will not be on this list, despite their respective contracts all being equally or more awful than the ones below. So without further ado, the 10 worst NHL contracts:
[the_ad id=”534″]10. Justin Abdelkader – Detroit Red Wings forward Justin Abdelkader has never been a highly threatening offensive presence. Even before he was drafted and turned pro, he had one season of 20 or more goals and has never put up more than 52 points in any league. He has topped 20 goals one time in the NHL in 2014-15 and has never hit the 50-point mark in the big league. Abdelkader is supposed to be a defensive forward who forechecks hard and creates chances for his linemates, but even his defensive numbers are lacking. His 111 hits are tied for 107th in the NHL, and his CorsiFor of 46.8 indicates that he can’t seem to keep pucks away from his net any more than he can bury them in the oppositions. While a cap hit of $4,250,000 isn’t exactly eye-popping, it’s the term of 7 years that is cringe-inducing. Players who play with an edge like Abdelkader typically take a toll on their bodies throughout the course of their careers, and it would be a surprise to see him achieve full value over the process of those 7 years if he can’t get back to his 2014-15 form.
9. Loui Eriksson – The Vancouver Canucks have not made it past the 1st round of the playoffs since their magical run to the Stanley Cup Final in 2011 and have finished in the bottom five of the NHL standings in two of the last three seasons. In most cases, when this happens, teams begin selling off pieces to rebuild for the future. Many expected the Canucks to take this route after yet another disappointing season, but Jim Benning had other ideas, signing Loui Eriksson to a 6-year contract worth $36 million. The reasoning was that Eriksson had a strong showing beside Daniel and Henrik Sedin at the World Cup of Hockey, but what Benning decided to ignore was the fact that the Sedins will be 37 years old at the end of their current contracts, and the rest of their forward core was aging and slowing down. Not to mention a lack a defensive depth after Chris Tanev and Alex Edler and a 35-year-old goalie in Ryan Miller. While Eriksson has scored 30 goals twice and 20-plus goals 6 times, which would indicate he is a consistent offensive threat, he has disappointed in his first season in Van City. The fit with the Canucks is also a funny one, as he will more than likely be well past his prime when Vancouver completes their rebuild and ices a team worthy of competing for a Stanley Cup.
8. Andrew Ladd – When the Islanders promised to pay Andrew Ladd $5,500,000 per year for the next 7 years, the expectation was that he would flourish playing on a line with John Tavares. Given the fact that he has won two Stanley Cups (2006 with Carolina, 2010 with Chicago) and is a 5-time 20-goal scorer, it was a reasonable assumption to make. Unfortunately for the New York Islanders, that has not been the case. Ladd has been finding the back of the net more lately, but he has been bounced around the lineup from the first line with Tavares to the 4th line playing around 10 minutes per game, while his 27 points in 67 games simply are not enough. Had the contract he signed been three or four years, it could be easier to digest the fact that sometimes players have slow starts in their first year with a new team, but Ladd is under contract for 6 more years until he is 37 years old, which must have Islanders fans concerned about the direction of their team moving forward.
7. Carl Soderberg – The day before the 2015 NHL Entry Draft, the Boston Bruins traded the rights to Carl Soderberg to the Colorado Avalanche for a 6th round pick in 2016. After 2 seasons of 40-plus points, the Avalanche re-signed Soderberg to a 5-year deal worth an average of $4,750,000 per season. While he managed to put up a respectable 51 points in his first season with the Avalanche, he still only managed 13 goals and has completely disappeared this season. One could argue that Colorado, as a team, has been awful, but Soderberg was brought in to help players like MacKinnon, Landeskog, and Duchene drive offense but has actually done the opposite. Through 69 games, his CorsiFor is a ghastly 44.3%, and his 6 goals mean the Avalanche have paid Soderberg a little over $708,000 per goal this season. Colorado has a lot of work to do to right their ship, and they’ll need Soderberg to re-discover his offensive game to justify the final 3 years of his contract.
6. Frans Nielsen – When Pavel Datsyuk announced his intention to leave the Detroit Red Wings at the end of last season, GM Ken Holland made a move to bring in former New York Islander Frans Nielsen to help fill the glaring offensive void in their roster. Nielsen scored 52 points last season pivoting a line with Kyle Okposo and Nikolai Kulemin but hasn’t brought the offense with him this season, as he has put up a mere 14 goals and 32 points in 69 games while playing the majority of the season with quality linemates like Thomas Vanek, Gustav Nyquist and Dylan Larkin. His $5,250,000 cap hit makes him the Wings 4th highest paid player behind captain Henrik Zetterberg, defenseman Mike Green and goaltender Jimmy Howard and only the 5th highest point producer, with two players ahead of him having played less games. Detroit is set to miss the playoffs for the first time in 25 years and they’ll need Nielsen to step up if they plan to return next season.
5. Marian Gaborik – A 3-time 40-goal scorer, Marian Gaborik was traded to the Los Angeles Kings at the 2014 trade deadline, where he subsequently put up 16 points in 19 regular season games, and 14 goals in 26 playoff games, helping the Kings win the Stanley Cup. This led GM Dean Lombardi to sign the winger to a 7-year extension worth an average of $4,875,000 per season. Getting a 40-goal scorer for less than $5,000,000 is usually a steal in today’s NHL, but Gaborik’s contract keeps him locked down until the 2020-21 season when he will be 39 years old. Most players begin their decline around age 35, but Gaborik has been decimated by injuries over his career and the likelihood of him playing, and playing productively for the remainder of his contract is low. He missed the first 28 games of this season with a broken foot after missing the last 28 games of last season with the same injury and has only been able to find the back of the net 9 times in 48 games since returning. Although he has been productive as recent as the 2014-15 campaign where he had 27 goals and 47 points in 69 games, Gaborik has not played a full season since 2011-12, when he scored 41 goals and 76 points with the New York Rangers. The last two seasons, however, the big Slovakian has seen his average ice-time drop by almost 2 full minutes from 16:55 in 14-15 to a career-low 14:57 the following year, while getting on the ice for just over 15 minutes this season. Additionally, his shooting percentage has dipped to a dismal 8.25 average (8.0% so far this year, 8.5% last year) over the same period. After winning 2 Stanley Cups in 2012 and 2014, the Kings haven’t quite been the same team and are not looking like a playoff team this year. If they decide to go the rebuild route, Gaborik’s contract will most definitely be detrimental to their cause.
4. Ryan Callahan – Former New York Rangers captain Ryan Callahan has made a career of playing a gritty, in-your-face defensive style game, while also chipping in a little offensively. He has always been one of the top hitters in the NHL and matched a career-best 54 points just 2 seasons ago, but his run and gun play has caused him to be hampered by injuries throughout his career. He has never played an entire 82 game season (he played 81 in 08-09) and has only played more than 75 games four times in 12 seasons in the league. This season, Callahan played 18 games before having hip surgery and being ruled out for the season. At 31, he may not be an old man, but one has to wonder how many more successful years a player can have after so many injuries. The Lightning are tight for cap space and have some serious decisions to make with Ondrej Palat, Jonathan Drouin and Tyler Johnson all needing new contracts this off-season. Having Callahan on the books until 2020 is only going to make GM Steve Yzerman’s job that much more challenging.
[the_ad id=”693″]3. Dustin Brown – In the summer of 2013, the LA Kings re-signed then-captain Brown to an 8-year extension worth an average of $5,850,000 per season, although he had only scored 18 goals and 29 points the previous season. Before that, however, he potted over 50 points in each of his previous 6 seasons, with a career-high 33 goals and 60 points in 2007-08, also winning a Stanley Cup in 2012. Since signing the extension, Brown has not scored any more than 15 goals in 2013-14 or the 32 points he has amassed so far this season. His scoring touch has fallen off a cliff and he was stripped of his captaincy in the summer of 2016, so the Kings should pray to the hockey Gods that the Vegas Golden Knights are willing to take his contract to add some leadership to their young franchise, or else Los Angeles will be signing Brown’s paychecks until at least 2022.
2. Andrew MacDonald – The Philadelphia Flyers acquired Andrew MacDonald from the New York Islanders in 2014 for a 2nd round draft pick (traded to Boston, who selected D Brandon Carlo), a 3rd round pick (G Ilya Sorokin) and F Matt Mangene, who has yet to suit up for an NHL game. While the trade itself wasn’t a bad deal, it was the subsequent 6 year, $30,000,000 extension that had many people scratching their heads. MacDonald has never scored more than 5 goals in a season, his total points topped out at 28 in 2013-14 and he is a career -19. In fact, MacDonald has been so awful since being traded to Philadelphia that he even spent most of the 2015-16 season in the AHL with the Lehigh Valley Phantoms. He failed to make the team out of training camp and was recalled on February 23, 2016, where he played the final 28 games of the season, putting up 1 goal and 7 assists. MacDonald has spent the entire season with the Flyers this season but only has 2 goals, has yet to hit 20 points and is a -10. Nobody is going to take on his cap hit, as evidenced by the fact that anyone could have had him for free upon his demotion, and it would cost the Flyers almost $2 million a season for the next 6 years to buy him out. Philly’s only real option if he can’t find his game again is to bury him back in the AHL.
1. 
Bobby Ryan – Since arriving in Ottawa in 2013, Ryan has been a big disappointment to Sens fans. His 147 goals and 289 points in 378 games with the Anaheim Ducks inspired the Sens to give up Jakub Silfverberg, Stefan Noesen (now with the New Jersey Devils) and their 2014 first-round pick (Nick Ritchie). Despite scoring only 23 and 19 goals in his first two seasons with Ottawa, Senators GM Bryan Murray re-signed the winger to a 7-year contract worth $7,250,000 annually, which currently ranks as the 25th highest cap hit in the NHL, ahead of players like LA’s Drew Doughty, Calgary’s Johnny Gaudreau, Senators teammate Erik Karlsson and Montreal’s Carey Price. Considering Ryan was a consistent 30-goal scorer when he was acquired, the contract seemed a little high, but reasonable considering his age (he was 25) and the rate of which he was producing. Unfortunately, there appear to be few viable options for Ottawa to offload his contract, especially with a 10-team limited no-trade clause so Sens fans may be stuck with Ryan for another 5 years.
Honorable mentions, in no particular order:
- Dion Phaneuf – $7,000,000 through 2021
- Tomas Plekanec – $6,000,000 through 2018
- Marian Hossa – $5,275,000 through 2021
- Shea Weber – $7,857,143 through 2026
- Semyon Varlamov – $5,900,000 through 2019
As mentioned at the beginning, narrowing this list down to 10 was not an easy task, so if you think I’ve missed a contract that should be here, let me know what you would change in the comments sections. As always, thanks for reading!
References
All statistics & salary information found on
love zack parirse—really do–plays the game the right way–but he should be on here–his 90 pt days are in the rear view widow
You’re right, his 90 point days are most likely over, but I have a hard time adding a guy who has topped 25 goals in the 3 seasons prior to this one, with 33 2 years ago. He also has dealt with a few minor injuries since the lockout season, so I wonder how he would produce at 100% health. I agree that he hasn’t quite justified his $7.5 million salary this season, but his intangibles are valuable and I believe he will have a strong playoffs and bounce back next year.
Enjoyed the read. Research and reasoning is spot on.
Thanks for the kind words! Research is critical in articles of this nature, so I’m glad it’s being appreciated!
Great article. Too bad about Detroit!
Thanks for the feedback! While I’ve never really felt here nor there about Detroit, it’s sad to see such a legendary franchise in such disarray. They have some solid pieces there but I think losing Babcock hurt them more than they expected. It’ll be interesting to see how Ken Holland goes about bringing the Wings back into relevance.
Paul Holmgren’s tenure in Philadelphia was littered with these types of ridiculous contracts. He’s responsible setting them back a decade as they continue to be held back by his poor decisions.
Absolutely. Ilya Bryzgalov, Mike Richards, and even Jeff Carter, to name a few off the top of my head, were all signed to monster deals during Holmgren’s time. We all know what happened with Bryzgalov and Richards, but the Carter trade actually worked out nicely as they got Jakub Voracek and 2 picks that turned out to be Sean Couturier and Nick Cousins, all 3 of whom are key components to the Flyers’ forward group.