Post 2005/2006: Top 5 worst contracts given

[Legend123]

The finger guy with the leafs

 

[Crow]

I don't know that he cracks top 5 for the cap era necessarily but it seems crazy to me that Seth Jones at 9.5x8 hasn't been mentioned yet.

Honestly, seabrook was worse.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

How about Price and Ekman-Larsson?

Price with that huge contract being paid for what he did for the Habs in the past rather than what he could continue to do for them in the future and so far since getting that contract he's played one full season and two shortened pandemic ones and that's it.

Ekman-Larsson so bad that he needed to be bought out.

Carey Price won a shit team several playoff rounds and brought a crap team to the finals. He went on LTIR afterwards and that cap hit hasn’t hurt the club at all. He doesn’t belong in this conversation.

But his GM should be shot for surrounding him with crap. Just an absolute waste of his talents.

 

[Lafleurs Guy]

Rick DiPetro 15 years @$4.5 in 2006
Bought out in 2013
Paid $1.5 mill until 2029 (16 years buyout)

This is the one. I don’t think it hurts their cap though does it?

That is an absolutely insane contract.

 

[jetsforever]

How is almost no one mentioning Seabrook?!

 

[Nemesis Prime]

David Clarkson
Milan Lucic
Jonathan Huberdeau
Justin Abdelkader
OEL

 

[Three On Zero]

Huberdeau
Nurse
DiPietro
Vlasic
Finger

 

[yada]

Rick DiPetro 15 years @$4.5 in 2006
Bought out in 2013
Paid $1.5 mill until 2029 (16 years buyout)

Dipetro was hurt otherwise his contract would have been fine. Also the years was a cap circumvention tool

Didn't he also spend at least 2 years of that in the AHL as well?

Yup thats part of why players now get NMC and also why players that are signed to 1 way contracts now count against the cap whether theyre on an nhl or ahl roster

 

[yada]

Probably nothing beats DiPietro (they're still paying him a lot) and Bryzgalov, but I do remember this Redden one being really terrible.

Didn't he spend, like, half this contract in the minors?

Yup rangers found a way to circumvent the cap by placing him in the minors. That tactic no longer works as your cap hit counts if you're on a 1 way contract.

Jason blake got a pretty bad contract 5 year 20M. Looking at this it was in 07 and the cap was much much smaller. 4M wasnt top of the top tier players but it wasnt far off

 

[yada]

Yep. Pre-cap though, and there's a bunch of great picks there (Holik prime among them)

All those rangers ufa contracts could take the cake : lefabvre kamensky holik kasparitus (he wasnt useless just overpaid)

 

[CokenoPepsi]

Seabrook and Toews' last contracts for Chicago turned out pretty terrible

 

[Gabriel Landeskog]

Calgary Flames offer sheet for Ryan O'Reilly. They would've paid a 1st and 3rd and would've lost him to waivers.

 

[Bouboumaster]

'Memba that? I 'memba that.

 

[Leafshater67]

Rick DiPetro 15 years @$4.5 in 2006
Bought out in 2013
Paid $1.5 mill until 2029 (16 years buyout)

I have a REALLY hot take that deal wasn’t bad at all when it was signed. They got a star goalie at the time, locked up for his career with a low ish cap hit. Yes, the wheels fell off but they coulda rode it out a couple more seasons and LTIR-retired him.

He was a good goalie trending towards elite status with the best draft pedigree. They didn’t know his body would fall apart after that.

 

[JaegerDice]

Brent Seabrook AINEC

 

[Buck Naked]

nobody remembers Jeff Finger?

It's funny that this deal was so bad, Capfriendly doesn't wanna report it.

Jeff Finger Contract, Cap Hit, Salary and Stats - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

Jeff Finger contract, salary, cap hit, salary cap, aav, career earnings, lifetime earnings, aav, advanced stats, transaction history, trade history, and rfa or ufa free agent status

www.capfriendly.com

 

[syz]

I remember watching FA coverage and when Jeff Finger was signed the panel was basically like who? for how much? what? why?

Like that contract basically just fell out of the sky and nobody knew what to do with it.

 

[Fire Sweeney]

Shea Weber

 

[Bank Shot]

Off the top of my head:
David Clarkson (Leafs were lucky to get out of this one)
Ilya Bryzgalov (Flyers were lucky to have compliance buyouts)
Jeff Skinner
Andrew Ladd
Marc-Edouard Vlasic

HM: Lucic, Nurse, Campbell, Huberdeau (may be #1 after next season), Josh Anderson

Get a grip.

Nurse isn't even in the top 20 for current poor contracts.

 

[orby]

Five that come to mind...

DiPietro (15 years, 4.5 mil AAV...the runaway choice for worst contract of all time)
Parise (13 years, 7.5 mil AAV)
Vlasic (8 years, 7 mil AAV)
Seabrook (8 years, 6.875 mil AAV)
Eriksson (6 years, 6 mil AAV)

 

[Frankie Blueberries]

Five that come to mind...

DiPietro (15 years, 4.5 mil AAV...the runaway choice for worst contract of all time)
Parise (13 years, 7.5 mil AAV)
Vlasic (8 years, 7 mil AAV)
Seabrook (8 years, 6.875 mil AAV)
Eriksson (6 years, 6 mil AAV)

I would think Huberdeau, OEL, Dubois, and to a lesser extent Gaudreau are all contenders.

 

[orby]

I would think Huberdeau, OEL, Dubois, and to a lesser extent Gaudreau are all contenders.

OEL is a great pick, and Gaudreau is certainly headed that way. Time will tell with PLD and Huberdeau...they have time to turn it around, but it's not looking pretty.

 

[waitin425]

Alzner
Marner
Dubois

 

[TLEH]

I don't know that he cracks top 5 for the cap era necessarily but it seems crazy to me that Seth Jones at 9.5x8 hasn't been mentioned yet.

Stan Bowman probably should have two of the Top 5 with Seabrook at 6.875x8 and Jones 9.5x8.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

I have a REALLY hot take that deal wasn’t bad at all when it was signed. They got a star goalie at the time, locked up for his career with a low ish cap hit. Yes, the wheels fell off but they coulda rode it out a couple more seasons and LTIR-retired him.

He was a good goalie trending towards elite status with the best draft pedigree. They didn’t know his body would fall apart after that.

Yup, and the whole idea was always that it was a bit of a gamble- much lower aav for many more years. I’d say don’t sign a goalie long term, except elite goalies were still a thing back then. So.. still probably dumb imo, but dude got hurt early on, that’ll make any deal look bad.

Not the worst in terms of value, but just in terms of clearly bad decisions, I nominate Ristolainen’s contract. Most of these contracts mistakenly projected good play too long into the future- with Risto they projected play that had simply never existed. No one else was bidding at that level, just such a weird unforced burden.