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Bad contracts are an unfortunate reality of any sport, and can often sink a team's contending window. That's especially true in the NHL, with the league having a hard salary cap with fewer ways to maneuver around it.
In the year of our lord and savior 2023, there are a plethora of bad contracts floating around the NHL. Some are bad because the term is too long, others are bad because the money is too high, and a select few have both. The NHL offseason is mostly at a standstill now, so what better time than to look at these bad deals?
Before we get started, though, it's important to clarify exactly how we'll be ranking these deals. The Athletic released an article on Wednesday compiling the 10 worst contracts in the league, and one metric they used is how likely each player will perform above their cap hit, known as positive value probability. That wasn't the only factor in the rankings, but allow us to offer a different perspective in which it is.
With that said, here are the four players who earned a PVP under 10 percent.
4. Ryan Strome, Anaheim Ducks
Remaining Contract: 4 years, $5 million AAV (9 percent PVP)
The Ducks have been in rebuilding mode for nearly half a decade now, so it's been strange to see them go on mini spending sprees the last two years. One of their strangest moves was their signing of Strome last year, who was then coming off a 21-goal, 54-point season with the New York Rangers.
Strome was OK offensively in Year 1 in Anaheim, scoring 15 goals and 26 assists, but still had a drop from his previous showing with the Rangers. However, he was a black hole defensively, contributing to the Ducks' defense being so abysmal. With Strome already being 30, his play is likely to decline further by the end of the deal.
The worst part is that the Ducks are stuck with this deal for four more years, likely hampering their rebuild. It seems unlikely that he will live up to his pay grade, but the Ducks have to hope and pray that somehow happens.
3. Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars
Remaining Contract: 4 years, $9.85 million AAV (5 percent PVP)
Seguin signed this deal back in 2018, and at the time, it seemed like a good signing. He was consistently a point-per-game player and one of the faces of the Stars franchise.
However, time has not been kind to Seguin or this deal. It's not even really his fault, as he has missed significant time with brutal injuries, including missing nearly the entire 2020-21 season. Now, he routinely scores around 50 points a year, which isn't bad in isolation, but not remotely worth a cap hit of almost $10 million.
Additionally, the Stars have simply moved into a new era. The days of Seguin and Jamie Benn being the headliners are over, with that billing instead going to Jason Robertson, Roope Hintz, Miro Heiskanen and Jake Oettinger.
At the very least Seguin isn't complete deadweight and showed some flashes of his old form last season. However, this contract being so long and so expensive is just not ideal for Dallas.
2. Nicklas Backstrom, Washington Capitals
Remaining Contract: 2 years, $9.2 million AAV (4 percent PPV)
In a lot of ways, Backstrom's situation is very similar to Seguin's. He was a great player in the past, being a very strong playmaker and Alex Ovechkin's running mate. No matter what happens, going forward, he'll go down as a legend in Washington who helped the team win its first Stanley Cup.
Once again, though, injuries have not been kind to the Swedish center. Hip issues have plagued him each of the last two seasons, and his offense has all but vanished as a result. In 86 games over the last two NHL seasons, Backstrom has just 13 goals and 39 assists.
The context of when this deal was signed is also important here. The Capitals signed Backstrom to the four-year extension in January of 2020, counting on the cap to go up to help them swallow the cap hit. Of course, 2020 then decided to happen, and the cap has only gone up marginally since.
At 35, soon to be 36, years old, it doesn't seem likely that Backstrom will rebound to his glory days. A shame considering how much he has done for the Capitals franchise.
1. Marc-Edouard Vlasic, San Jose Sharks
Remaining Contract: 3 years, $7 million AAV (4 percent PVP)
The Sharks have had a habit of giving out eight-year deals, and Vlasic is the perfect example of such a practice coming back to bite them. Vlasic was never much of a scorer but had a solid enough defensive game to be a key part of San Jose's blue line. Since signing this deal in 2017, though, he has experienced a huge fall from grace.
Not only has his already-meager scoring further declined, but his defensive game has fallen off hard too. His Corsi per 60 minutes has been below -12 in each of the last four NHL seasons, and the two before weren't much better. Vlasic has been relegated to the Sharks' third pairing, yet he's struggled even there.
It goes without saying that no team wants to pay a third-pairing defenseman $7 million per season, but that's the reality the Sharks are in. There are other contracts that may have the potential to be worse, but none are as huge with as little upside as this one.
