Every NHL Team’s Worst Contract Heading into the 2023-24 Season

One thing we’re guaranteed to hear a lot about this season (and every season, really) is the salary cap and how close teams are to the upper limit.

Relatedly, we’re also going to hear a lot about the players whose deals are most responsible for that and whether they’re living up to that price tag or not. It’s all fun and games on the ice, but off of it, the business of hockey can’t help but be analyzed with an electron microscope.

With the new season approaching, we’re taking a closer look at the books and pointing out one player from each team whose contract is going to make life a bit more difficult for their general manager and resident capologist.

As a caveat, there are some teams that are in prudent financial shape in terms of their contracts, so we had to make some tough decisions regarding the “worst” contract on the roster. No one said this job was easy.

Let’s get to it.

Anaheim Ducks – John Gibson

ice that did that well enough last season, but financially, they’re in a really good spot.

There is a bit of a snag though, because goalie John Gibson has been on the market for a trade but without any takers. That’s partially due to his numbers being down the past couple of seasons but that also has to do with his contract that has four more years left on it with a $6.4 million cap hit.

The 30-year-old from near Pittsburgh would be an ideal candidate for a team in need of goaltending help of some kind (Buffalo? Los Angeles? Detroit? Pittsburgh?) but the raw financial cost apart from what it would take in prospects and picks to get him in a trade makes it really tough for teams to take the plunge. The best thing for his trade value is for the Ducks to play better in front of him and for Gibson to stay healthy.

The cap is going to go up in the coming years, but investing a lot of money in a goalie can be a gamble for teams. While the Ducks haven’t gone in the direction they thought they were headed, Gibson’s contract sticks out as a small reminder of why it can go poorly.

Arizona Coyotes – Clayton Keller

The idea that the Coyotes would have a terrible contract on the books is funny, isn’t it?

Of all of their active players, Clayton Keller is paid the most and has the most years committed. He’s smack in the middle of an eight-year, $57.2 million contract he signed back in 2019 that expires in 2028. He’s their top scorer and top player and the only other active players with extended contracts are Nick Schmaltz, Lawson Crouse and Matias Maccelli. By default, Keller has the “worst” contract because it has the highest cap hit for the longest time.

But Arizona’s books need that kind of action because they need to get to the salary minimum. They’re well above the floor this season and the dead cap money to Jakub Voracek, Shea Weber, Bryan Little and Travis Dermott (worth more than $22 million combined) helped make that happen. Because those contracts help them stay above the salary floor they’re naturally “good” even if it does feel a little grungy, they serve a purpose and other teams are happy they’re willing to do it.

Boston Bruins – Brandon Carlo

The Bruins are in a tough spot.

They’re up against the cap and their top two centers, Patrice Bergeron and David Krejčí, retired this summer. David Pastrňák’s monster extension kicks in this season at more than $11 million a year and since he scored 61 goals last season, it’s hard to argue it’s too much money, so we’re not going to do that.

Outside of Pastrňák’s eight-year, $90 million deal, the Bruins’ long-term commitments are few. Charlie McAvoy’s eight-year $76 million extension began last season as did Hampus Lindholm’s eight-year, $52 million deal. But there’s one other defenseman whose deal stands out not-so-well.

Brandon Carlo’s six-year, $24.6 million deal in its totality isn’t a backbreaker. A $4.1 million cap hit isn’t too big of a deal, but Carlo’s possession numbers have been average and dropped each season (apart from the COVID-19-shortened 2020-2021 season) and his point output is minimal at best (his career-high is 19 points set back in 2019-2020). All of that for $4 million a year when a team is pressed against the upper limit casts a sharper eye on where the money is being spent.

You could pick on Pavel Zacha or Charlie Coyle for the same reasons, but their duties are about to increase greatly in the wake of Bergeron’s and Krejčí’s retirements. If their offensive output grows from the greater responsibility, their contracts will be virtual steals.

Buffalo Sabres – Mattias Samuelsson

The Sabres have been ahead of the market when it comes to their contracts for the past couple of seasons. The long-term extensions for Tage Thompson and Dylan Cozens (each just more than $7 million a year for seven years) look like steals now and even Jeff Skinner’s eight-year, $72 million contract he signed back in 2019 looks a lot better now that he’s scoring 30-plus goals a season once again.

The Sabres are in a great spot even with a Rasmus Dahlin extension forthcoming and Owen Power likely seeing one of his own soon, be it a bridge or long-term which makes it really hard to say they’ve got a bad contract. But if there’s one to highlight, it’s defenseman Mattias Samuelsson’s seven-year, $30 million contract ($4.2-plus million cap hit).

Samuelsson isn’t a point-scoring defenseman; he’s a physical blue liner that clears the front of the net and lays the body along the boards. His job allows Dahlin to be free to generate offense and he can clean things up in the defensive end as needed. He’s paid well to do the dirty work and the Sabres are more than happy to have a guy like him to do it. The money they’ve saved on Thompson and Cozens goes to guys like Samuelsson who take care of the little things.

Without any real contract issues to speak of, the process of elimination falls onto Samuelsson, who ends up getting the nod as the Sabres’ worst contract.

Calgary Flames – Jonathan Huberdeau

It’s very easy to bury Calgary for Jonathan Huberdeau’s eight-year, $84 million contract. His first season with the Flames saw his offensive production go from 115 points with Florida to 55 with the Flames last season, nearly a 53 percent decrease in scoring. But that drop is a contributing factor to why Darryl Sutter was let go as coach in the offseason.

How Huberdeau performs under new coach Ryan Huska will go a long way into deciding whether or not the 30-year-old’s contract is a mammoth disaster or concrete proof it was never going to go well under Sutter. We’ve learned from seeing Jeff Skinner turn things around to get too eager about burying a guy with a new contract, but the pressure is sky-high for Huberdeau to get anywhere close to the 115-point mark he hit two years ago.

Yes, the Flames have other bad contracts (Jacob Markstrom, Nazem Kadri, Mackenzie Weegar, Blake Coleman), but Huberdeau’s $10.5 million cap hit is a monster worth 12.6 percent of the cap. He has to improve, or the Flames are going to be in a bad place for some time.