Post 2005/2006: Top 5 worst contracts given

[MikeK]

A lot of bad contracts to choose from but the worst of the bunch has got to be Rick DiPietro. Giving any player a 15 year deal is absolute lunacy, but to give a goaltender that takes it to another level altogether. The fact they had to buy him out and are still paying him through 2029, 23 years after signing it is just icing on the cake. No other contract in the history of the NHL will ever top Rick DiPietro's deal. Just the worst of the worst.

 

[EpochLink]

Pretty much the summer of 2016 signings.
Terrible.

 

[yada]

Thing is anyone that mentions dipetro fails to mention that the contract was an exact blueprint all teams followed after it was signed. Its the type of contract that led to luongo and weber concerns about recapture penalties. Kovalchuk contract followed this blueprint and cost the devils a draft pick.

Your team won as a result of following the lead of dipetro. Once again injuries is the only reason that contract failed to work out. That contract also failed to hamper the isles from getting below the salary cap.

 

[The Panther]

Thing is anyone that mentions dipetro fails to mention that the contract was an exact blueprint all teams followed after it was signed. Its the type of contract that led to luongo and weber concerns about recapture penalties. Kovalchuk contract followed this blueprint and cost the devils a draft pick.

Your team won as a result of following the lead of dipetro. Once again injuries is the only reason that contract failed to work out. That contract also failed to hamper the isles from getting below the salary cap.

Wait... What??

 

[Dirty Dan]

David Clarkson 7 x 36.75 M

Kovalchuk 17 Year 102 Millio

Rick Dipietro 15 x 67.5 M

PLD - enough said

Honestly LTIR cheatcodes get rid of most of these issues when teams abuse it

 

[karltonian]

My own feeling is Antti Niemi's signing by the Sharks was one of the worst, but not in terms of raw cap vs results. He was signed well before he had proven anything in teal.

The deal hitched the Sharks to a mediocre goalie during thornton, marleau, pavelski, and burns' (and vlasic for that matter) primes. He was simply a liability and in my opinion cost that stacked Sharks team the cup.

Ilya Bryzgalov.

Started in 2011-2012. 9 years, $51M, $5.66M AAV.

Bought out after 2 seasons lol.

He is still being paid until 26-27 @ $1.64m/yr.

is only game

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.

ignorant take. if Vlasic still had that one side he was known for, it'd be fine. problem is he now has no sides.

 

[Buck Naked]

ignorant take. if Vlasic still had that one side he was known for, it'd be fine. problem is he now has no sides.

Not really an ignorant take. It's been proven time and time again that you can get defensive specialists for tens of millions of dollars under what Vlasic signed for. Take Tanev for example. No one would ever even consider giving him anything remotely close to what Vlasic got and we haven't seen anyone else get it after Vlasic either. That kind of contract of almost 10% of the total cap for that type of player is basically unheard of. It was a bad idea then, it turned out even worse. McDonagh is probably the closest but it's still not as bad as Vlasic.

 

[Scintillating10]

David Clarkson 7 x 36.75 M

Kovalchuk 17 Year 102 Millio

Rick Dipietro 15 x 67.5 M

PLD - enough said

Honestly LTIR cheatcodes get rid of most of these issues when teams abuse it

PLD too early. I think he will semi bounce back.

Huberdeau contract worse for me. Back end of that will be nightmare

 

[Curufinwe]

Bryzgalov deal was terrible.

 

[Voight]

The amnesty buy out certainly adds a different perspective to it, but any way you want to slice it, NYR gave him $60M/9y and got out from under it after 3 seasons. They probably only intended for him to play 6 or 7 of those seasons when they signed him, but still. Richards was a great player in his time but the hoopla surrounding him that offseason and the contract he ended up signing was the newest benchmark at the time for "here we go, headed for another lockout" rhetoric.

The best was Craig Leipold complaining about teams hading out those massive long term deals, only to give out two of them on the same day to Parise/Suter.

 

[ijuka]

Rick DiPietro is probably the most hilarious contract I've ever seen. He's going to be paid $1.5m per year (not counted against the cap) until 2029 and was signed before the first iPhone came out.

That's not really a problem with the contract, though.

They could have LTIR'd him instead, and he would not count against the cap at all.

What you have an issue with is the fact that he was bought out, mainly.

 

[Voight]

Vlasic and Clarkson were/are brutal

The funny thing about Clarkson is the Oilers offered him 6x6 and he took less to sign in Toronto

 

[Voight]

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.

As a hawks fan I really don't see it as being that bad of a contract.

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

That one makes me laugh to this day. Like you knew what Holik was at that point and while he was a helluva defensive player, he was nowhere near a 9 million dollar player. There wasn't some untapped potential there.

Get a grip.

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

He definitely is.

 

[Voight]

Tavares contract set the table for Matthews, Marner, Nylander.

Together, Leafs could probably have saved $15m from all four had Tavares signed something like a $7.5m contract.

No it didn't. Eichels contract set the table.

 

[HanSolo]

As a hawks fan I really don't see it as being that bad of a contract.



That one makes me laugh to this day. Like you knew what Holik was at that point and while he was a helluva defensive player, he was nowhere near a 9 million dollar player. There wasn't some untapped potential there.



He definitely is.

Given the context sure, it doesn't hurt blowing that much money on a guy that should be making about 2.5m less while rebuilding, but in an objective sense it's a bad contract and it's only that much more notable considering his contract kicked off the trend of big name young defensemen getting 9+ million whether they deserved it or not. His contract set the comparable.

 

[GRob83]

I didn't seen Karl Alzners name mentioned. Montreal is just now getting off the hook for his buy-out from 4 years ago. 95 GP and 13 PTS with a -7 in his Canadiens career. Pretty bad for a 5 year deal that paid $23,125,000 and the Capitals won the Stanley Cup in their 1st year without him. Yikes.

 

[JianYang]

Was Scott gomez in this time frame?

That's the name I thought of. It was 2007, I believe.

Big contract and I think he went scoreless for about a calendar year.

 

[EpochLink]

Came here to mention Ehrhoff. Sabres owe him $857,143 annually through 2027-28.

He came off 2 productive years in Vancouver, playing with the Sedins. Then in the 2011 offseason, he had his chest thumping rant about how the Sabres were in their way to building a cup contender and that’s why he signed there.

Then the man cashed in the checks with terrible play soon there after.

 

[I am Canadian]

Tavares's contract ruined the Leafs' window. How has it not been mentioned

What a clueless take. You think a PPG player with an 11M contract is top 5 since 2006?

 

[Voight]

That's the name I thought of. It was 2007, I believe.

Big contract and I think he went scoreless for about a calendar year.

He and Drury had similar cap hits but Slats at least wasn't dumb enough to give the latter more than five years. Slats was good enough of a GM to flip him for a top D prospect tho.

 

[I am Canadian]

While not the absolute worst, Dave Bolland 5x5.5M with Florida was dreadful. Atleast he was LTIRed for them.

Dave Bolland Contract, Cap Hit, Salary and Stats - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps

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[Peltz]

That's not really a problem with the contract, though.

They could have LTIR'd him instead, and he would not count against the cap at all.

What you have an issue with is the fact that he was bought out, mainly.

The whole thing was short-sighted. Why they would give him that kind of term is beyond anyone with rational sense.

They burned a first overall pick on him too.

I don't think LTIR vs Buyout is really a factor in why it was bad.

 

[BB79]

Kovalchuk 17 Year 102 Millio

Rick Dipietro 15 x 67.5 M

There they are! The 2 absolute worst.

 

[elmaco]

A lot of bad contracts to choose from but the worst of the bunch has got to be Rick DiPietro. Giving any player a 15 year deal is absolute lunacy, but to give a goaltender that takes it to another level altogether. The fact they had to buy him out and are still paying him through 2029, 23 years after signing it is just icing on the cake. No other contract in the history of the NHL will ever top Rick DiPietro's deal. Just the worst of the worst.

Absolutely mind boggling that they are still paying him

 

[MikeK]

Thing is anyone that mentions dipetro fails to mention that the contract was an exact blueprint all teams followed after it was signed. Its the type of contract that led to luongo and weber concerns about recapture penalties. Kovalchuk contract followed this blueprint and cost the devils a draft pick.

Your team won as a result of following the lead of dipetro. Once again injuries is the only reason that contract failed to work out. That contract also failed to hamper the isles from getting below the salary cap.

WTF!??