Toronto Maple Leafs: The Four Worst Contracts in the NHL
One thing Toronto Maple Leaf fans can agree on is that the team is in a cap crunch.
The Toronto Maple Leafs may have spent to the salary cap, but they also do not have any bad long-term contracts.
General manager Kyle Dubas has successfully looked up all of his young core players, including Andreas Johnsson and Kasperi Kapanen.
The Leafs worst recent contracts were the five remaining years on Nikita Zaitsev’s deal, and the last year and six million owed to Patrick Marleau.
Dubas was able to excise these deals last summer, and use the savings to sign many depth players to single year contracts, a strategy that has worked out nicely for the Leafs this year.
When people mention bad contracts and the Maple Leafs a few names come to mind: David Clarkson, Tim Connolly, and Colby Armstrong.
Clarkson is notorious for his terrible seven-year, $36.75-million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs where he only recorded 15 goals and 11 assists over two seasons.
The Leafs, correctly, traded him away to the Columbus Blue Jackets but recently reacquired him despite his lack of activity since 2016. He was subsequently placed on Long Term Injured Reserve (Leaf fans may know this as Robidas Island) to clear up cap-space.
Let’s examine the three worst contracts in the NHL right now.
Marc Edouard Vlasic
Toronto Maple Leaf fans are of course familiar with Sharks veteran Patrick Marleau who opted to return to his old team for $700,000.
However, they are probably less familiar with Marc-Edouard Vlasic, the San Jose Sharks defenseman who recently signed a 8 year, $56,000,000 contract.
It is one of the worst deals in the NHL. Vlasic is already 32 and in decline, but the contract runs until 2026 when he is 38 years old. The seven million dollar cap hit is already a massive overpay and it’s just year two of the deal.
Vlasic put up great defensive numbers until his late twenties. In the last four years Vlasic has become a negative possession player, and his stats across the board have declined.
I don’t know how the Sharks are going to rebuild with the contracts they gave to Brent Burns (8 year, $64,000,000), Erik Karlsson (8 year, $92,000,000) and Vlasic.
As well, Jumbo Joe Thornton, who hasn’t been a #1 Center for quite a few years, signed a 1-year, $2 million contract at the age of 40.
Their top seven players make up more than $52 million for the next season, plus $63 million in commitments (per CapFriendly), which does not allow for a lot of room for young studs or trades.
Add to this captain Logan Couture’s injury and All-Star Tomas Hertl season-ending injury….well, it doesn’t look good. However, in an attempt to be positive, they’ve got a nice core locked in and if they could nab a good goaltender they’re not a bad team.
Sergei Bobrovsky
Former Blue Jackets goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky signed a 7 year, $70,000,000 contract with the Florida Panthers this year and is failing to live up to expectations.
This might not be so bad – anyone can have a down year – but for the fact is that he is 31 and this contract carries a massive $10 million dollar cap hit until he is 37.
It always hurts when a good goaltender takes a chance on a team and fails. Anyone who has read former Toronto Maple Leafs goaltender Curtis Joseph’s book can attest to this. Or just open your eyes….
While he has recently experienced a surge, Bobrovsky holds a 19-12-4 record with a 3.24 GAA and an .898 save percentage.
Not exactly what one expects for that kind of money.
This contract is made even worse because the goalies who have replaced Bobrovsky this year in Columbus are combining for some of the best goalie stats in the NHL.
Jeff Skinner
One thing I will disagree with people on is the Jeff Skinner contract.
Per CapFriendly, his contract has a cap hit of $9,000,000 for the next eight years.
I follow the Carolina Hurricanes pretty closely and this former Calder Memorial Trophy winner was consistently putting up numbers for those Bunch of Jerks and carrying them on his back.
At the time of writing this, Skinner has 19 points in 41 games which is low for this consistent 20+ goal scorer. (All stats naturalstattrick.com).
However, Skinner is still in the top 6 of production for the Sabres. I am writing this with optimism for future seasons to come, but if his point production is the same or lower next year? – Ouch Sabres fans.
Skinner is 27 and should be in his prime right now. If this is just an off season – and not the start of an early decline, the Sabres might do alright here.
Still, a nine million dollar cap hit for a 34 year old Jeff Skinner is not looking too hot right now, especially with the Sabres still a long way from contention.
Brent Seabrook
Seabrook may be the worst of them all.
Chicago sure loves their veterans don’t they?
Brent Seabrook (age 34) is raking in $1.78 million ($6.88 million cap hit) for four more years after this one, despite being terrible for a couple years now.
Seabrook has just 4 points in the 2019–2020 season, and now that his offense is no longer able to cover for what has always been sub-par defense, he just isn’t an NHL player.
This seems to be all she wrote as Seabrook was placed on Long Term Injured Reserve recently due to shoulder surgery.
Next. Top 10 Leafs Prospects 2020 Update. dark
There you have it: the four worst contracts in the NHL and not a member of the Toronto Maple Leafs in sight.