The 7 Worst Contracts in the DCHL

Loosely ranking what I believe to be the 7 worst contracts in the DCHL

DISCLAIMER: These are the worst contracts in the DCHL excluding ELC contracts, as well as any contract with only one year remaining. Also, I avoided picking multiple players from the same team, which may go against the idea of the article if a team were to have two of the best contracts in the league. I just think it's more fun to include more teams rather than talking about only a few teams. Lastly, this list does not take context into account, so if a contract is only bad because a team needed to reach the floor or something along those lines, it is still a bad contract at the end of the day.

Dishonourable Mentions: Ryan McDonagh, VAN (7.45Mx2); Ryan Johansen, DAL (8,136Mx3); Rasmus Ristolainen, ANH (5,278Mx4); Connor Clifton, PIT (4.5Mx4)

7 - Erik Karlsson, MTL

If there is one player on this list that I may end up eating shit over, it’s Karlsson. I mean, the guy just put up 101 points as a defenseman on one of the worst teams in the league and now is playing for a revamped Penguins team that actually looks quite good. So why is Karlsson on this list? Well, simply put, I don’t think that point pace is sustainable and I don’t think he’ll come even close. As insane as his season was, it came after multiple seasons where Karlsson was never on this high of a level with the Sharks. This past season kind of came out of nowhere. Not to mention that his spot on the top powerplay will be in jeopardy with it having been Letang’s spot for more than a decade at this point. The Penguins are trying to make the playoffs at all costs for the last years of the Crosby/Malkin/Letang core, so if Karlsson doesn't play perfectly, they will not hesitate to push him down the lineup for whoever is the hot hand at any given point. I am skeptical of Karlsson’s 14M for 3 years for that reason. Going to a better team doesn’t mean he’ll perform better. We see this all the time with free agents or deadline acquisitions where they go from top player on a bad team to a middling player on a great team. Of course, Erik Karlsson is still one of the best offensive defensemen of the last decade and by no means a bad player, but there are a lot of variable factors at play with his move to the Penguins and for that reason, I think his contract is too much. 

6 - Brandon Tanev, MIN

Now, I am going to rant a bit here, but I welcome anyone to explain to me how Brandon Tanev has a higher rating than Verhaeghe, who posted 40+ goals and 70+ points last season, or Zegras, who has posted 60+ in back to back seasons. Both my guys are rightfully rated higher on offensive stats, and believe me I am all for players being recognized for their defensive prowess, but there are many players rated lower than Tanev that I would much rather have. I could even go back to my team again and look at Cirelli who is rated lower and is better both offensively and defensively. Regardless of my gripes with the ratings, Tanev is making $8,150,000 for 2 years. As I said, he is a very good defensive forward, but that is really all he offers is a good defense rating with solid checking, physicality, and a bunch of other stats that I have no idea how they actually affect his simulation. Regardless, he did perform well enough in the DCHL scoring 56 points in 81 games, so for what he offers in the DCHL, maybe it doesn’t belong here. But to me, it’s very expensive for a player who will likely play more of a middle-bottom 6 role for the Wild (or at least based on how I would set up the lines if that was my roster, I can’t speak on what Jake’s plans are).

5 - Jacob Markstrom, VGK

This one may be a bit of a controversial opinion, because I am FULLY aware of how much this league values goaltenders, and one that’s rated as highly as Markstrom carries significant value. That said, there is no world where I am paying any goalie 12M a year, and Markstrom is making that amount for 2 more years. There are certainly much less deserving goalies of being paid 12M a year and at least he’s a very good, highly rated goaltender. It's really the only reason he's not ranked higher. That said, paying a goaltender this much handicaps how much you can spend on other parts of your team where that value is much more tangible and apparent. Just think what their forward group could look like with less money put into goaltending! To their credit, they have a pretty great top 6, but their bottom 6 falls off a cliff after that, and with only 400k left in cap space, I’m sure they wish they had a cheaper starter.

4 - Mike Matheson, SEA

Mike Matheson had a very good, albeit shortened, season in which he posted 8-26–34 in 48 games played. Over the course of a full 82-game season, that puts him on pace for 58 points. That’s good enough for 14th among defensemen, surpassing guys like Pietrangelo, Doughty, Hedman, etc. That said, I’m not convinced, and I’m especially not convinced for the price of 9.5M for 2 years. It is a relatively short term, so if it doesn’t work out, it won’t be all that long til he’s off the books. I just think that’s too much for someone who hasn’t really been anything all that special from what I’ve seen. I’ll unhappily eat my words if he has another great year, but until then, I feel pretty confident saying 9.5M is way too much for Matheson.

3 - Sean Monahan, TOR

I was a really big fan of Monahan’s back when he and Gaudreau were something of a dynamic duo, but those days are long gone, and I’m sad to say that Monahan just isn’t that good anymore. Mainly due to some very unfortunate injuries, but either way, $7,652,678 for 3 years is far too much for a player that brings virtually nothing to the figurative table that is the sim. In all fairness, he is on one of a very small number of teams where he qualifies as a top 6 forward, so it makes sense for Toronto to take this contract on, especially for Seattle’s 2nd round pick, but he should have never been signed to this much in the first place.

2 - Scott Laughton, NYR

This year’s free agency was an absolute clusterfuck for signings, in the sense that pretty much every player went for well over their actual value. I had every intention of signing free agents this year, and came out with mostly empty-handed. There's Matheson and Karlsson, and also Dumoulin who went for 7M, but he got lucky that there’s a worse contract on his team. Laughton, however, is not so lucky. Following a year where he posted more than 40 points for the first time in his career, Laughton got a pretty solid rating boost and now makes a whopping $9,880,000 for 6 years. I mean, surely everyone else can see why that is just an insane contract. Even if Laughton posted 60 points next year, I would probably still say this deal is insane. I understand that Laughton’s appeal is his two way play, and you’ll get your worth there, but in no world is a middle 6 defense-first center worth this much. Luckily, the Rangers are still undergoing a massive rebuild that will probably take quite some time, so handing out expensive contracts can be fine, but signing Laughton to that amount for 6 years makes it hard to justify it regardless of the rebuild.

1 - Alexander Edler, CHI

I actually had a few options from Chicago, from Philip Grubauer making 9.25M for 3 years or Brian Dumoulin making 7M for 3 years, but I went with Edler who is making 10M for 2 years. I mean, that’s just insane. At least the other 2 provide some value. Dumoulin being a top defensive defenseman and Grubauer being a serviceable goaltender, Edler is at best the 4th best defenseman even on the rebuilding Blackhawks. On the worst of teams, he’d hardly even be a top 2 D. So yeah, 10M for Edler is probably the worst contract in the league. Even if Chicago trade him with full retention, I don’t even think it would be worth taking on. Luckily, it’s only for 2 more years and Chicago is in a position where they can afford to take on contracts like these, but that doesn’t change how awful of a contract it actually is.