Worst Offseason Signing? – Since we’re a bit further into the season, I figured it would be a good time to see who looks to be the worst offseason addition. Every year Free Agent Frenzy makes geniuses and fools of us all. The GM’s for giving out insane bundles of cash for terrible fits. The fans like us for thinking things will work out.
Martin Hanzal – The Dallas Stars made some major changes in the offseason. They traded for the rights to Ben Bishop and promptly signed him. They gave Alexander Radulov the term Montreal wouldn’t. They traded for Marc Methot. Lastly in the wake of losing Cody Eakin to expansion, they signed Martin Hanzal to shore up their centre depth. While most of these moves seem to be working out well enough, there’s one glaring problem. That Hanzal’s not so hot right now. With a NMC, his three year deal pays him 4.75 million per season. It’s fair value for a 2nd/3rd line centre. Hanzal isn’t playing like one though. He has just 1 goal and is a -10 on the year. I think most reasonable people expected this deal to be hit/miss due to his ridiculous number of injuries over the years. You’d expect him to play well for 30 of the 40 games he plays and inevitably hurt his knee getting out of bed one morning. I didn’t see the whole Jets against Stars game last night, but I watched about 2/3’s of it. Hanzal barely saw the ice and the few times he did, he was noticeably bad. Slow. Unusually unengaged and suspect defensively. Which used to be his forte. I thought that he plays the type of game that Hitchcock would like and that the two would be a good fit. Early on…that thought seems wrong. Hanzal has time to turn it around, but at the moment that contract looks terrible. I’d like to state outright that having written about the Coyotes previously on this site, that I was a Martin Hanzal apologist. I’m not anymore.
Steve Mason – I think this one is pretty self-explanatory and Jets fans could probably go on and on about this whole ordeal. Thankfully for them, his deal is only two years. Bad news is that they’re paying 4.1 million on the Cap for what has been the second worst goalie in the NHL. Mason has always been pretty consistent in being inconsistent. It seems that you can flip a coin every season and he will either be great (08-09 and 14-15) or terrible (11-12 and 16-17). With an .872sv% and a baffling 4.84 GAA, he has only been outsucked by Antti Niemi this year. So he has that going for him. He’s lost his starting job already to a hungry Hellebuyck and I don’t think he’s getting it back any time soon. Outside of the extremely elite goalies, most go through ups and downs. So there is an argument to be made that he will come out of this. I just don’t see it though. Especially behind a team that really needs elite goaltending to make up for some of their defensive shortcomings.
Antti Niemi – On the subject of bad goalies…wow. I’ve never been a Niemi fan, even back when winning the Cup. The Sharks lost desperate in that move and one can only imagine how much better they would have been with Hjalmarsson instead of Niemi. With a statistically improbable 6.74 Goals Against Average and a horrendous .822Sv %, Niemi has been the worst goalie in the league this year…and it’s not close. He’s making the goalies in the 80’s blush with those numbers. He has started only 3 games (played in 5) and allowed 21 goals. It takes a level of effort to be that bad. The saving grace and why I feel this can’t be the worst move in the offseason (but worth mentioning!) is because his contract is just 1 year and 700k. So it’s not like he’s a boat anchor or anything. He makes replacement level money and is replaceable. If you need to cut ties, which the Penguins did, it’s no big deal. Unlike say Mason.
Ales Hemsky – This one, like Niemi, is really not that egregious due to term and cost. I just wanted to mention it because it was such a pointless move. At least when the Canadiens rolled the dice on Alex Semin, he was a year removed from a 22 goal season and two from a PPG season (lockout). Hemsky is a forward that needs to play pretty much 100% in the offensive zone these days. Or he wouldn’t be effective. Where would he fit in Montreal? There’s no way he’s on the top-6 with their wingers. 7 games in and he’s on the fourth line where people expected and has zero points. He’s already injured. Already. Only 7 games, beat his previous record by 8 games. I just didn’t and still don’t understand or like this move.
Karl Alzner – Advanced stats say he’s absolute garbage. His Corsi For % is the worst on a not too great Canadiens defense. At 4.6 million per year, he’s highly paid and is expected to be a strong top-4 defenseman. I have to mention him, because the advanced stats crew would burn me at the stake if I didn’t. However I’m on the fence with this one seeing as he is being used in a primarily defensive role which is basically what he’s paid to do. I’d have to actually watch him play more to make a call on this one being a contender for the worst.
Vadim Shipachyov – Billed as the savior and promised the first line centre position. Shipachyov has already left the Golden Knights after just 3 games. He did score an NHL goal…so hurray?! From the start, it seemed like this was the perfect fit. Vegas was not able to pick up much impact centre’s. Their depth was basically Eakin-Karlsson-Haula/Lindberg-Bellemare. Arguably the worst in the NHL. Shipachyov should have easily taken the first line centre and run with it. However the drama began and he started in the AHL. Things were leaking about his play being dreadful. Then not taking the AHL demotion well. It all flustered into Vegas and Shipachyov mutually terminating the contract and a flight back to Russia. It’s hard to beat a deal where people projected a player to get 60 points based on “KHL to NHL points metrics… and such, to 3 games and a terminated contract.
Jordan Eberle for Ryan Strome – One of the Oilers biggest weaknesses going into the season was speed on the wing. They made a move and got slower. They needed to move out a bigger contract to make sure they could keep McDavid and Draisaitl. But they got worse. Eberle had his worst season in the NHL last year…and he still scored 20 goals and still finished third on the team in scoring. Strome was coming off his second best season ever…with 13 goals…you see the issue right? People wonder why Edmonton isn’t scoring as much or generating as much offense. It’s because they replaced their 3rd highest scorer with a guy who averages 30 points. Strome currently ranks 6th on Edmonton in points with 2 goals and 5 points. He’s far from the biggest problem with Edmonton right now, but he’s not a solution either. Eberle on the other hand seems to have found his stride with the Islanders and has 4 goals and 11 points. If Tavares decides to stay with the Islanders it will have a lot to do with this move to get him another top-6 player. I didn’t like the trade when it happened and as the season has gone on, I like it even less.
Ryan Reaves and the 51st Overall Pick for Oskar Sundqvist and the 31st Overall Pick – Ask Ryan Wilson what he thinks of this trade. It’s good for a laugh. He’s still pretty angry about it. I think this one is also a little self-explanatory. The Blues got a first rounder, which they used to turn into the falling and excellent Klim Kostin (10gp 1g 5a 6p in the AHL at 18 years old) for a fourth liner that plays 7 minutes a night. Even weirder, Sundqvist is playing fairly well as a fourth liner himself. So the Blues got a different type of fourth liner and a top prospect for their goon. That’s some nice value. Not a disaster for the Penguins, but not a good move to say the least.
Winner (Loser?) – For me thus far it has to be Martin Hanzal oddly enough. 4.75 million for 1 goal and being terrible at both ends of the ice? That’s just putrid. Plus, he hasn’t even gotten hurt yet, which you know he will. So he’s even wasting his healthy time playing terribly. He was supposed to be the perfect fit to make the Stars a difficult team to play against. But he’s been terrible and in Hitchcock’s doghouse. One of these other deals may end up being worse, but for me it’s Hanzal right now.