I went through the entire league division by division to list the bad contracts each team has. It is only fair if I comb through once again to find all the good contracts each team has. Some things I will be looking at include the age of the player. Does this team have the player locked in for the prime years (24-26)? If not, does the term of the contract stay within a reasonable time frame for the player to be productive (different players are going to age better than others). What is the likelihood of the team predominately paying for past performance? What kind of contract are they on? I will not be including ELC deals on this for obvious reasons. Those contracts are artificially low and thus not eligible. These are just some of the things I’ll be looking at.
So far I've gone through the Metropolitan Division, the Atlantic Division, and the Central Division.
The contract you voted as best in the Central Divison yesterday was Nate MacKinnon with a whopping 78% of the vote as it should have been. He has the most team friendly contract in the NHL. Ryan O’Reilly was the runner up with 8% of the vote. You'll have the chance to vote for the best contract in the Pacific Division today at the bottom. Let's take a look at the candidates I've picked.
Anaheim – John Gibson
The last blog ended with a goalie and this one is starting with one. John Gibson is one of the best starting goalies in the league and Anaheim did well to lock him in long term at the price they did. This year was the first of eight in a contract that will pay Gibson 6.4M per season. He’s been unbelievable despite playing on a team that bleeds shots and scoring chances. He is one of a few goalies who you could give 10M per year to and still come out OK. The Ducks didn’t have to and they will come out great for it.
Arizona Coyotes – Clayton Keller
Believe it or not the Coyotes have the least cap space in the NHL at the moment and you wouldn’t know it based on their roster. It is a bunch of meh. They went aggressive signing mid-tier deals for Nick Schmaltz and Christian Dvorak, but they are no sure thing. You have veterans like Taylor Hall and Carl Soderstrom coming off the books. Phil Kessel has two more years left on his deal.
The lone contract with term that stood out and seemed logical was Clayton Keller. He’s 21 years old and pretty talented. Last year was solid. The year before not so much. At 21 I’m inclined to believe he can build off of his successful season. He will make 7.15M for the next eight years. His contract kicks in during 2020-21. I think there’s a good chance he lives up to the contract value. Calgary Flames – Johnny Gaudreau
He has two more years left on his deal at 6.75M. He’s been a great value at this cap hit and I see no reason for him to slow down for the two years remaining on his deal. He is 26 years old, immensely talented, and should have enough talent on his line to keep churning out offense. He’s one of the more fun players to watch in the league and comes in pretty cheap as far as AAV. Edmonton Oilers – Connor McDavid
Leon Draisaitl and his 8.5M cap hit deserves a mention here because he’s been fantastic along with McDavid on a team without much support to them. McDavid is the easy answer because he is the best player in the sport at the moment and he took a discount to stay in Edmonton. It makes no sense to me, but it is his career to waste. Even if McDavid maxed out his contract he would still be proper value. Nobody is more explosive and makes something out of nothing quite like McDavid these days. It’s a throwback to the early Sidney Crosby years, but more of a straight line force.
Los Angeles Kings – Anze Kopitar
I know what contract it isn't
To clarify, that's 10 years after next year -- so 11 years in total of our goaltender being better than yours.
— LA Kings (@LAKings) June 28, 2012
Kings are a tough one because they are in a full rebuild and don’t have many players with term. It is the right move for the franchise it just doesn’t help with this exercise. Kopitar is 32 and still has four years left on this thing at 10.0M, but he’s still a great player. Doughty’s contract is awful. Dustin Brown, nope. What’s left? Anze Kopitar.
San Jose – Timo Meier He has three more years at 6.0M and he is 23 years old. They are getting his best years and he is a good player. So many of the Sharks contracts are only good for the next couple of years and then get really bad. It is the nature of being a team throwing all of their chips in the middle of the table. Meier is one of the few exceptions to this and is a contract that would fit on any team in the league and make sense.
Vancouver – Brock Boeser
Great goal scorer for only 5.8M It is a bridge deal so It is only for two more years, but they should get immense value in those two years. In a year or so when Elias Pettersson signs his eight year deal for 10 million or so he will have the best contract on the team. Boeser will eventually get his long term deal and the fact they bridged him isn’t great, but when you look at Bo Horvat he is fine, but nothing special. JT Miller was amazing last year, but he’s older. Brock Boeser is going to give them a lot for the next two years at 5.8M
Vegas – Shea theodore
The Golden Knights have great forward depth, but the back end can be sparse at times. Having Theodore locked up at age 24 for the next five years is really good. He fits the style of play of what Vegas is trying to do. His underlying numbers have been great.
Locking in Theodore for seven years at 5.2M wasn’t much of a gamble
Who do you think has the best contract?
Thanks for reading!