[News] The Athletic releases list of worst contracts (we’re #1!)

[PaperBagger'14]

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/651...source=dlvr.it

The top 10 are:


Jonathan Huberdeau
Ivan Provorov
Chandler Stephenson
Brady Skjei
Nicolas Hague
Sean Couturier
Ryan Pulock
Sam Bennett
Cody Ceci
Tanner Jeannot

Notably absent from the top 10 is Darnell Nurse which is puzzling. 18 year old former flame Sam Bennett also makes the list

[FlamesAddiction]

Replace Bennett with Nurse.

Bennett's contract isn't great for regular season production, but he is getting paid for being a menace in the playoffs. Not a bad contract, but not a bargain. Only time will tell how it ages.

But yeah, Huberdeau's is obviously the worst contract in the league. It's about 40% over market value with an equally bad term.

[GreenLantern2814]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/651...source=dlvr.it

The top 10 are:


Jonathan Huberdeau
Ivan Provorov
Chandler Stephenson
Brady Skjei
Nicolas Hague
Sean Couturier
Ryan Pulock
Sam Bennett
Cody Ceci
Tanner Jeannot

Notably absent from the top 10 is Darnell Nurse which is puzzling. 18 year old former flame Sam Bennett also makes the list

With the “worst contract in the league”, the Flames still have $25M in cap space with only Zary left to sign.

Oh the humanity.

[Blaster86]

Bennett's contract is gonna age ugly.... but Darnell Nurse is literally preventing the Oilers from winning a cup by it self. Not sure how anything can be worse than that.

[The Fonz]

....the guy who has won 2 straight Stanley Cups, was just awarded the Conn Smythe, and makes $8M, is one of the worst contracts in the league?

[Svartsengi]

Nurse did get an honourable mention at least. With the salary cap going up again next year Flames shouldn’t be hurt by the Huberdeau contract. Just sign our own free agents and continue to use guys from Wranglers to fill bottom 6 forward and bottom pairing defenders.

[PaperBagger'14]

How many years will it take for someone to dethrone Huberdeau? His production will drop as he continues to age, but the salary cap will go up and possibly lead to another massive overpay. I’m kinda skeptical if there will be a worse contract in the league over the next 6 years.

[Jiri Hrdina]

It would be interesting to rank the worst contracts somehow accounting for impact to the team.
Which isn't trying to excuse away the Huberdeau contract. It's awful. Both because of term and dollars. But I appreciate the article also acknowledges no one saw such a dramatic drop in production. But it also isn't really impacting the Flames and any of their near-term objectives.

Whereas if the Oilers had more cap available perhaps they could actually address their goaltending.

[Hockey-and_stuff]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

....the guy who has won 2 straight Stanley Cups, was just awarded the Conn Smythe, and makes $8M, is one of the worst contracts in the league?

It's a lot of money for the regular season production that Bennett provides. The Panthers also had one of the best value deals in the league as well in Reinhart.

The author of this article was on the Athletic podcast today and essentially said that if you take Reinhart and Bennett together it's a value overall for Florida so they aren't hurting themselves with the contract.

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[Robbob]

Originally Posted by PaperBagger'14

How many years will it take for someone to dethrone Huberdeau? His production will drop as he continues to age, but the salary cap will go up and possibly lead to another massive overpay. I’m kinda skeptical if there will be a worse contract in the league over the next 6 years.

What about Timo Meier, I think can make a run at it. He also has 6 years left. Last year he put up 53 points to Huberdeau's 62. His cap hit is only 1.7M less than Huberdeau's.

[Hockey-and_stuff]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

It would be interesting to rank the worst contracts somehow accounting for impact to the team.
Which isn't trying to excuse away the Huberdeau contract. It's awful. Both because of term and dollars. But I appreciate the article also acknowledges no one saw such a dramatic drop in production. But it also isn't really impacting the Flames and any of their near-term objectives.

Whereas if the Oilers had more cap available perhaps they could actually address their goaltending.

I don't believe the model makes adjustments on cap situation (would that even be possible to plug into a model?), just a measure of value based on certain criteria.

Term is a big factor on these year over year as the more term you have left the more surplus/negative value you can project on a deal.

It's why Nurse is off the worst deals (not enough term to make top ten negative value) and McDavid is out of the top 10 best contracts (not enough term to have a top ten in surplus value)

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[Leeman4Gilmour]

My hot take is that Huberdeau's production will bounce back for 2 or 3 years, then come back down a bit. He's reinvented his game a bunch in a good way. I don't think he'll be back up to 100+, but he'll put get in the 75 to 85 range for a bit.

[FlamesAddiction]

Originally Posted by Jiri Hrdina

It would be interesting to rank the worst contracts somehow accounting for impact to the team.
Which isn't trying to excuse away the Huberdeau contract. It's awful. Both because of term and dollars. But I appreciate the article also acknowledges no one saw such a dramatic drop in production. But it also isn't really impacting the Flames and any of their near-term objectives.

Whereas if the Oilers had more cap available perhaps they could actually address their goaltending.

But that is kind of because he hasn't lived up to it. If he did and the Flames were a playoff contender, they'd probably be a capped out team as well. The objectives had to change because of his decline.

I don't know though if I would call it the worst anymore after last season. He was a lot less frustrating to watch last season. The two years before that there were so many WTF moments that it was painful. At least last season he played well most of the time.

[Jiri Hrdina]

Originally Posted by FlamesAddiction

But that is kind of because he hasn't lived up to it. If he did and the Flames were a playoff contender, they'd probably be a capped out team as well. The objectives had to change because of his decline.

I don't know though if I would call it the worst anymore after last season. He was a lot less frustrating to watch last season. The two years before that there were so many WTF moments that it was painful. At least last season he played well most of the time.

and long-term maybe those objectives changing aren't a bad thing.
Again a fascinating dominoes question. If Huberdeau is better, the Flames don't draft Zayne.
And while Zayne isn't a sure thing, he's probably the most important asset and player in the entire organization (followed by Wolf)

[Phaneuf_Phan]

I guess they don't like Conn Smythe trophy winners

[blankall]

Originally Posted by The Fonz

....the guy who has won 2 straight Stanley Cups, was just awarded the Conn Smythe, and makes $8M, is one of the worst contracts in the league?

Even if its bad in the future, his previous contract, when he won the Conn Smythe, was a steal. It's like paying him for work he's already done.

I thought for sure he was going to hit the UFA market and get $9.5+ million. I guess a combo of loyalty, an extra year of contract, and cheaper taxes kept him around in Florida.

Even at $8 million/year mid-30s Sam Bennett contract is going to be ugly....but 2 cups so who cares.

[Mr.Coffee]

This list isn’t just asinine from an opinion perspective, it’s straight up just objectively wrong.

Do people at the Athletic even watch hockey or have any ability to put their biases aside?

Garbage journalism. It’s like this list was made 1 year ago and we’re all pretending things like Frederic’s 15 points made sense to commit to 8 years and 30 million dollars. Meanwhile Huberdeau’s still murdering him in points and contributions and gets first on the list. Bennett on this list is laughable.

You can take this list and shred it, it’s not worth the paper it was printed on.

[midniteowl]

When Nurse is not on that list, we should know how credible that list is.

[Weitz]

Originally Posted by Mr.Coffee

This list isn’t just asinine from an opinion perspective, it’s straight up just objectively wrong.

Do people at the Athletic even watch hockey or have any ability to put their biases aside?

Garbage journalism. It’s like this list was made 1 year ago and we’re all pretending things like Frederic’s 15 points made sense to commit to 8 years and 30 million dollars. Meanwhile Huberdeau’s still murdering him in points and contributions and gets first on the list. Bennett on this list is laughable.

You can take this list and shred it, it’s not worth the paper it was printed on.

Did you read the article? It’s a list made from Doms statistical model. The process doesn’t change year to year (except tweaks to the model). It’s not just a website making a list.

I know the OP is poor but it’s really not that outrageous.

[All In Good Time]

Originally Posted by midniteowl

When Nurse is not on that list, we should know how credible that list is.

Nurse should be on that list at least 3 times