The 10 worst value contracts in the NHL for 2025-26

Oct 1, 2025, 10:30 EDTUpdated: Oct 1, 2025, 13:52 EDT

The 10 worst value contracts in the NHL for 2025-26

Credit: © David Kirouac-Imagn Images

One of the trickiest parts about managing a team in a salary-cap world is avoiding bad contracts. Even the smartest general managers have their blind spots and wind up signing deals that age very poorly. But while some bad contracts are just nuisances for teams’ salary caps, some can cause major headaches and get in the way of building teams to the peak of their powers.

After looking at some of the best-value contracts last week, let’s look at the worst of the worst contracts this week.

To do so, I’ll be taking the contract rating system used in my salary-cap rankings series earlier in the summer to decide the value of each player’s contract and how much value teams are losing. For an explainer on how the contract rating system works, you can learn more here. However, since there are more forwards than defensemen and goalies, it means forwards have a lower floor for their contract ratings, so the defensemen and goaltender ratings will be adjusted down based on how many players both positions have compared to the forwards.

One important distinction with this system is it looks strictly at the discrepancy between the player’s on-ice value over the last three seasons and their cap hit for this season. So term won’t play a role in this, mostly due to my inability at this time to project players’ future impacts in relation to the future market. This means a bad-value deal with one year left will have the same value as one with several years left. It also won’t include extensions given to players in addition to their current deals, just the cap hits for the 2025-26 season.

This discrepancy also means that the rating will be more punishing towards replacement-level players who are getting paid relatively high salaries. So while Jonathan Huberdeau or Darnell Nurse may jump out as egregious contracts because of how much they are getting paid, they are still playing at levels akin to a solid NHLers. Are they disappointing and underperforming those contracts? Yes. But they are still living up to those deals more than replacement-level players would with contracts in the range of $4-6 million.

While the best-value deals required qualifiers to put together the list to avoid a lot of random names, the worst-value list does not. By nature of having contract ratings as low as the players that cracked this list do, their cap hits have to be at least seven figures, likely meaning they’ve been established NHLers at some point. And if they aren’t established, that makes the contracts even worse.

10. Brayden Schenn, St. Louis Blues

Cap Hit: $6.5 million (3 years remaining)
Contract Rating: -354

If there’s anyone on this list who’s earned his contract with his respective team, it’s Schenn. He had established himself as a consistent top-six center who could produce with the Philadelphia Flyers, and after joining the Blues, it took him two years to win the Stanley Cup, signing his current deal shortly after. That window after a championship win is often looked at as one where you can’t judge a team’s moves too harshly, but everyone knew this contract wouldn’t age well.

While Schenn is still producing, the rest of his game has fallen off of a cliff and made it so the Blues need to shelter him in the lineup if they want to win the minutes where he isn’t producing. At $6.5 million, you expect a bit better than that. Yes, he’s 34, but that’s why you don’t sign players to eight-year contracts that go into their mid-to-late 30s.

9. Ivan Fedotov, Columbus Blue Jackets

Cap Hit: $3.275 million (1 year remaining)
Contract Rating: -354.93

For those of you that followed along with my cap rankings, you’d know Fedotov’s contract is bad enough that the his mid-September trade from Philadelphia to Columbus drastically shook up my rankings. At least the Blue Jackets have the cap space to stash him in the minors, and he does provide them with “some” goaltending depth.

However, even calling him a depth option is a question mark. Only Philipp Grubauer and Joel Blomqvist had a worse 5v5 goals saved above expected per 60 minutes last season, and since entering the NHL two seasons ago, Fedotov has the fifth-worst 5v5 GSAx overall. Why the Flyers decided it was a good idea to give him that much money for more than one season is beyond me, but at least there’s only one year left.

8. Elvis Merzlikins, Columbus Blue Jackets

Cap Hit: $5.4 million (2 years remaining)
Contract Rating: -354.93

Merzlikins is actually tied with his new teammate for the worst contract rating among all goaltenders, but because he has one more year on his contract, he ranks higher. Still, it’s impressive Columbus managed to trade for a goalie contract that was just as bad as the current one they have on their hands.

While Merzlikins is not nearly as bad of a goalie as Fedotov, Merzlikins’ time in the NHL has been mediocre after starting his first two seasons strongly. His -28.3 5v5 GSAx in the past four years is ahead of only Grubauer and Jack Campbell, and Merzlikins’ .897 save percentage is the sixth-worst among goalies with at least 100 games played. With Jet Greaves on the verge of supplanting Merzlikins for the starting goalie position in Columbus, that contract is looking worse and worse by the season.

7. Josh Anderson, Montreal Canadiens

Cap Hit: $5.5 million (2 years remaining)
Contract Rating: -355

Anderson’s contract was one that came out of nowhere at the time of him being signed in 2020. While he had a 27-goal season two years prior to signing his current deal, he had just one goal and four points in 26 games in 2019-20, a total that isn’t worthy of $5.5 million OR seven years, never mind both.

Anderson has scored goals at an OK rate since signing the deal, averaging 19 goals per 82 games, and he has that physical style teams like in the playoffs, even if the Habs have only made it to the playoffs twice during his contract. But outside of that, there isn’t a lot Anderson brings to his game, especially as he enters his 30s, and he has never really lived up to his deal.

6. Mikael Granlund, Anaheim Ducks

Cap Hit: $7 million (3 years remaining)
Contract Rating: -359

Granlund’s contract is one of two recently signed deals on the list, and I can’t believe I completely missed this one when looking at my worst contracts list of the 2025 free agency. It was only two years ago that his four-year contract with a $5 million AAV felt a bit pricey for what he brought to the table, so adding $2 million more to that feels a bit risky.

Granlund’s 105 points in 121 games with the San Jose Sharks certainly raised his value, but he’s averaged 0.65 points per game otherwise in his career, and that includes his time with the Dallas Stars. Unless the Ducks are planning to use him as their offensive focal point like the Sharks did, the Ducks won’t get that production. Add in some horrid defense over the past few seasons (his 0.207 5v5 regularized adjusted plus minus expected goals against per 60 minutes from 2022-25 is tied for the ninth-worst among forwards with 1000 minutes) and this contract will likely not go well for Anaheim.

5. Erik Gudbranson, Columbus Blue Jackets

Cap Hit: $4 million (1 year remaining)
Contract Rating: -364.38

Gudbranson’s market value has always higher than his on-ice value, largely due to his 6-foot-5 frame and his draft pedigree as a former third-overall pick. But his 2021-22 season with the Calgary Flames was probably the closest he’s come to matching that value. Playing in a depth role on a loaded team, Gudbranson put up 17 points, and for just the second time in his career, he was positive in both offensive and defensive goals above replacement with 3.1 and 1.5.

Of course, that one-off performance was an opening for a bad contract, which the Blue Jackets happily signed him to. His four-year deal with a $4 million AAV was too long and too expensive, and considering Columbus hasn’t deployed him in similarly favorable conditions like the Flames did, his underlying numbers have not looked good. Overall, it’s not a great look for the Blue Jackets that they’re so well-represented on this list.

4. Ben Chiarot, Detroit Red Wings

Cap Hit: $4.75 million (1 year remaining)
Contract Rating: -369.11

The 2021-22 season did numbers on Ben Chiarot’s PR. While his performance that year was pretty par for the course come the trade deadline with 18 points in 54 games with Montreal (although his 0.16 5v5 RAPM xGA/60 is one of the worst totals of his career), the lack of a market for defensemen made him a hot commodity. The Florida Panthers paid a heavy price to get him for their playoff run, netting the Habs a first- and fourth-round pick and a prospect, and the Red Wings equally paid the price in dollars with a four-year, $19 million contract.

Now in the final year of the deal, it’s safe to say it has not worked out for Detroit. He’s been thrusted out of his element into a top-four role merely out of obligation, and only one of those seasons has seen him provide a positive impact defensively (2023-24 with only a -0.03 5v5 RAPM xGA/60). The fact that a good chunk of his tenure in Detroit has seen him stapled to Moritz Seider is a reason why the German blueliner has some of the toughest minutes in the league, and Chiarot’s contract has played a significant role in the Red Wings’ stunted growth.

3. Ilya Lyubushkin, Dallas Stars

Cap Hit: $3.25 million (2 years remaining)
Contract Rating: -369.11

For my money, Jim Nill’s handling of the right side of his defense in the 2024-25 season should have put him out of the running for GM of the Year. While Matt Dumba’s contract and bringing in Cody Ceci at the trade deadline as relief were bad enough, the Lyubushkin contract was significantly worse. The cap hit was livable, but the three-year term really ties up the Stars’ cap situation, which was exacerbated after they finally had to cut into their depth this summer.

Not only is his contract impacting the Stars’ salary cap, but on the ice he’s been holding back the team. While he’s not horrendous at anything specifically, he’s consistently poor across the board, and his hulking frame and slow pace look out of place on the speedy Stars. His only significant impact last season was giving the Stars their worst 5v5 xGA/60 rate since 2007-08 of 2.64, after previously never going higher than 2.52.

2. Christian Dvorak, Philadelphia Flyers

Cap Hit: $5.4 million (1 year remaining)
Contract Rating: -402

Every single contract on this list has caused their respective teams a headache largely due to the term handed out to them. But Dvorak is the lone deal featured today that comes in at one year, and that’s largely due to how much Dvorak’s game has fallen off at this point in his career. His production has always lacked, and his defensive game continues to be horrid. He didn’t even rank in the top 500 among forwards in my model, a significant reason for such a poor contract rating.

Ultimately, it won’t matter too much for the Flyers. They have the cap space this season to throw money at anything, they don’t plan on contending this season, and the deal will be done at the end of the year. If anything, his poor play will be perfect for tanking if Philadelphia wants to go that route, and he gives them a body to fill their center depth. But bad value is bad value, and there aren’t many deals worse than this one. In fact, there’s only one…

1. Barclay Goodrow, San Jose Sharks

Cap Hit: $3,641,667 (2 years remaining)
Contract Rating: -404

Goodrow’s contract is an instance of a couple different circumstances coming together to create one disaster. Goodrow was coming off consecutive Cup wins with the Tampa Bay Lightning on their well-known checking line, and bound to see a raise in his salary. Meanwhile, the New York Rangers were dealing with the aftermath of Tom Wilson bullying their team and looking to get tougher. Goodrow seemed like the perfect fit, and they were willing to pay anything to get him.

The result was a six-year contract at $3,641,667 per year. While it’s far from the most expensive contract on this list, Goodrow’s play has barely been at an NHL level, making the term and salary all the more outrageous. The Rangers learned the hard way that Goodrow was the passenger on that electric third line with Tampa and were lucky enough that the Sharks jumped on the contract when he was placed on waivers last summer.

(Dis)honorable mentions: Cody Ceci, Los Angeles Kings; Justin Faulk, St. Louis Blues; Philipp Grubauer, Seattle Kraken; Nicolas Hague, Nashville Predators; Steven Stamkos, Nashville Predators; Ryan Strome, Anaheim Ducks; Jacob Trouba, Anaheim Ducks

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