The first weekend of NHL free agency is in the books, and what an interesting weekend it was.

Most agreed that this free agency class was much weaker than in years past, as there weren't any real star players available. However, we still saw some massive contracts handed out in just the first couple days of free agency. According to CapFriendly, teams have dolled out nearly $700 million in total contract value so far.

Quite frankly, though, a lot of these contracts are questionable, to say the least. Some of these teams have committed some serious money to their free-agent signings, and it could cripple them in the future. On the flip side, there are some teams who stood pat when they really shouldn't have. All in all, there have been a lot of questionable decisions to start this free agency cycle.

With that said, here are three of the biggest losers from the opening weekend of NHL free agency.

Boston Bruins

We'll get into some controversial picks later on, but this one shouldn't be that surprising. Boston was always going to have a rough offseason, facing a major cap crunch after a record-setting regular season and playoff disappointment. Still, though, the Bruins were almost certainly the team that lost the most in free agency.

The biggest loss was forward Tyler Bertuzzi, one of the Bruins' trade-deadline pickup who played very well in the playoffs. To make matters worse, he signed with the Toronto Maple Leafs, one of Boston's main rivals in the Atlantic Division. The Bruins' blue line also took a massive hit as Dmitry Orlov and Connor Clifton both got solid paydays elsewhere.

That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. The Bruins previously traded away Taylor Hall, presumably to free up cap space to sign Bertuzzi, but failed. Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci may retire this offseason and the Bruins still have to sign RFA goalie Jeremy Swayman.

Who did the Bruins sign to help shore up their losses? James van Riemsdyk, Milan Lucic, and Kevin Shattenkirk, three players in their mid-30s. They aren't bad players by any means, but the Bruins already look like a shell of their former selves.

New York Islanders

This weekend wasn't all bad for the Islanders, so let's start with the positives. New York locked up star goalie Ilya Sorokin for the long haul with an eight-year deal worth $8.25 million annually. Sorokin is one of, if not the, best goalies in the league, so having him at that cap hit for his entire prime is a steal.

However, the Islanders' other signings in NHL free agency, or re-signings to be more accurate, don't get the same seal of approval. The least offensive of the three is forward Pierre Engvall, who signed a seven-year deal with an AAV of $3 million. The term is very long, but at least Engvall is still just 27 and there are similar contracts for middle-six forwards out there.

Then there's defenseman Scott Mayfield, who signed another seven-year deal worth $3.5 million annually. Mayfield will turn 31 when the Islanders play their first game of the season and is on their third pairing. Yes, New York's blue line is very strong so Mayfield would likely be a second-pairing guy elsewhere, but a seven-year deal is still absurd.

Finally, there's the four-year, $2.75-million deal the Islanders gave goaltender Semyon Varlamov. Varlamov has been great for the Islanders over his four seasons with them, but he's already 35. By the end of the contract, he could easily be in a deep decline.

It's a common tactic for teams to give out longer-term deals in order to lower the player's cap hit. However, Lou Lamoriello not only gave out insane term to these players, but overpaid them as well. The Islanders were already a first-round exit this season, and with so many long-term deals and one of the league's worst prospect pools, they may be locked into mediocrity for a while.

Carolina Hurricanes

I expect this one to be very controversial, as I've seen plenty of praise for Carolina's moves so far. I'm not claiming to know better than others, but I personally just don't understand what the Hurricanes are doing in NHL free agency.

Carolina brought in two big-name players over the weekend: Orlov from Boston and forward Michael Bunting to Toronto. Orlov signed the largest deal, in terms of annual value, in the league so far at $7.75 million for two years, while Bunting signed for three years at $4.5 million annually. On the ice, both players should be strong additions that could help Carolina push for a cup. However, my concern is the effect the signings have on the Hurricanes' cap situation.

Carolina has several key players who need new deals next offseason, including Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen, Martin Necas, Seth Jarvis, Jack Drury, and more. Now that the Hurricanes have dolled out over $12 million in cap space to two players, re-signing all those other players suddenly became exponentially more difficult. Additionally, they're reportedly still pushing for San Jose Sharks defenseman Erik Karlsson when that would only thrust them further into cap hell.

Then there's the situation that Carolina created for itself in net as it re-signed both Frederik Andersen and Antti Raanta. Re-signing one goalie makes perfect sense, but both of them, especially with their injury concerns, is baffling. Does youngster Pyotr Kochetkov now spend the year in the AHL? And if so, how does that affect his development? Why did the Hurricanes give him a four-year extension if they aren't even comfortable with him in a full-time role? At least he's waiver-exempt so the Hurricanes don't have to worry about losing him, but it's still so weird to not even give him the backup job.

The way I see it, the Hurricanes' offseason moves are very high-risk with very high reward. If they win the cup next season, then they'll look like geniuses and I'll be a fool for criticizing them (wouldn't be the first time I've made a bad prediction involving the Canes). If they fall short again, though, these moves could haunt them for a long time.