Post 2005/2006: Top 5 worst contracts given

[The Panther]

Redden 2008. 6 years and $39 million.

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?

 

[Buck Naked]

Vlasic is the worst contract in the cap era. You don't reward that kind of money to a one-sided player unless that one side is offense. Watch Slavin get a $9 million for 7-8 years or so within the next year. Then we will sit here in 3-4 years and laugh at that contract too.

 

[Section 104]

Not sure if Skinner belongs. He had two horrible years right after signing the contract with Krueger as a coach for a year and a half. But he has scored 92 goals the last three seasons..about what he did in Carolina. And hasn’t made the playoffs ..like he didn’t in Carolina. How much is that his fault when he is highly paid is debatable but you win as a team, you lose as a team.

Matt Moulson . Never understood that signing. He was a late bloomer and much of his success with playing with Pajama Boy on Long Island. Giving him a 5 year $25 million contract when he was 31 was very risky.

 

[Primary Assist]

Tavares. I don't know where the Leafs would be right now if they never made that signing, but it couldn't be any worse than where they are now

 

[bert]

Trouba

Lol so on brand for you to be so wrong.

Marleau has gotta be there. Leafs would have Seth Jarvis and probably more than 1 playoff series win in 9 tries. Lol

 

[Section 104]

Jack Campbell is looking pretty bad

Thomas Vanek. Got bounced from Buffalo to Islanders to Montréal in his UFA year and nobody really got anything for him either. Then again the Islanders offered him 7 years $50 million but he didn’t want to play in the City of Churches (Brooklyn) and ended up with 3 years $19 million in Minnesota

 

[MXD]

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.

Nahh. He was huge in 2021 (the playoffs) and him being unable to play anymore means there's not much consequences. If it was a poor franchise, then maybe... but it's not.

 

[QuizGuy66]

I don't think it makes the top 5 but I remember being able to enjoy the Devils dodging overpaying Clarkson only to have them turn around and sign Ryan Clowe to a ridiculous 5 year/$24m contract

 

[Poppy Whoa Sonnet]

Nathan Horton $5.3 m x 7 with no insurance was the worst. He played only 36 games on that deal.

Blue Jackets trade Nathan Horton to Maple Leafs for David Clarkson

Four days short of the trade deadline, the Blue Jackets and Toronto Maple Leafs rocked the NHL on Thursday night by swapping big-ticket, free-agent regrets. The Blue Jackets sent injured right wing N…

www.dispatch.com

 

[SomeDude]

Not worst in the league, but in terms of the second it was announced everyone said “that’s horrible” would be Jim Rutherford inexplicably handing Jack Johnson $16.5 million over 5 years. The start of the Pens repaying whatever deal JR made with the Devil that allowed every move he made the previous 2 seasons to turn to gold.

 

[BobClarkesfrontteeth]

Was going to say Yashin but realize he signed before the cap came in. Dipietro has to be the worse. The Milbury years were absolutely horrendous but the Garth Snow years were no better. Richards, Redden and Gomez deals were pretty horrible as well.

 

[57special]

No one mentioning Parise's 98M dollar deal, which is still killing Minnesota years after he was bought out?

 

[vshun]

Seabrook, his play dropped like the rock off the cliff before the ink on that contract was signed. And then he was pure liability as 3rd pair D on ice.

 

[Finlandia WOAT]

Jeff Finger, because the Leafs thought they were signing someone else

HockeyBuzz.com - - Did the Leafs Confuse Sauer with Finger or am I Missing Something Here?

www.hockeybuzz.com

 

[Riseonfire]

Not THE worst but all of the 5-year Laad Okposo Clowe and Nielsen deals all sucked for everyone involved.

 

[Riseonfire]

Was going to say Yashin but realize he signed before the cap came in. Dipietro has to be the worse. The Milbury years were absolutely horrendous but the Garth Snow years were no better. Richards, Redden and Gomez deals were pretty horrible as well.

DP got hurt in the allstar game and was never the same. A player sucking due to injury is not the same as a Wade Redden or Gomez situation.

 

[Sparksrus3]

Almost as good as the Bonilla deal.

That one is the Bernie Madoff deal .

 

[BFLO]

Not sure if Skinner belongs. He had two horrible years right after signing the contract with Krueger as a coach for a year and a half. But he has scored 92 goals the last three seasons..about what he did in Carolina. And hasn’t made the playoffs ..like he didn’t in Carolina. How much is that his fault when he is highly paid is debatable but you win as a team, you lose as a team.

Matt Moulson . Never understood that signing. He was a late bloomer and much of his success with playing with Pajama Boy on Long Island. Giving him a 5 year $25 million contract when he was 31 was very risky.

Okposo too. Got 7 years $42 mil from the Sabres because Tavares pumped his stats up.

Sabres have, and have had some doozies

Skinner 8 years $72 mil.
$9mil aav for:
22.6 goals, 27.3 assists, 45.6 points per season, and one of the 10 worst forwards in the league defensively every year.

Okposo 7 years $42 mil
$6mil aav for:
13 goals, 19 assists, 32 points per season

Moulson 5 years $25 mil
$5mil aav for:
7 goals, 12 assists ,19 points per season
Was buried in the minors the final 2 years of his contract after going pointless the first 14 games of the 2017-18 season.

Ville Leino 6 years $27mil
$4.5mil avv:
1.666 goals, 6 assists, 7.666 points per season
10 goals 36 assists over 3 seasons before being bought out.

 

[DaveG]

Messier's 3 years with the Canucks turned out to be an awful contract.

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

 

[Chainshot]

No one mentioning Parise's 98M dollar deal, which is still killing Minnesota years after he was bought out?

Or Suter's deal to play with his dudebrofriendo.

 

[TheDawnOfANewTage]

Or Suter's deal to play with his dudebrofriendo.

I recall being jealous. In hindsight it turned out just fine.

 

[57special]

Or Suter's deal to play with his dudebrofriendo.

Suter was a lot better than Parise, and still is.

 

[shadow1]

A couple honorable mention goalies:

Martin Jones: $5.75 x 6, M-NTC

• 68-53-11, 3.04 GAA, .896 SV%
• Bought out after year 3

Cal Petersen: $5M x 3, M-NTC

• 7-5-2, 3.80 GAA, .866 SV%
• 68 AHL games played

 

[dire wolf]

Jack Campbell is looking pretty bad

Thomas Vanek. Got bounced from Buffalo to Islanders to Montréal in his UFA year and nobody really got anything for him either. Then again the Islanders offered him 7 years $50 million but he didn’t want to play in the City of Churches (Brooklyn) and ended up with 3 years $19 million in Minnesota

Vanek is a weird answer here. First of all, the Sabres gave him 7 x $7M only because they had to match Edmonton's offersheet (after stupidly letting Briere walk and losing Drury to the Rangers). Second, over that 7-year period, from 2007-14, Vanek scored 214 goals and 439 points -- which works out to an average of 0.85 pts/game and 34 goals and 70 points per 82-game season.

Or were you talking about his next contract?

 

[Toronto makebeleifs]

nobody remembers Jeff Finger?

Cliff fletcher certainly didn't.