MANY good points on many LOUSY signings...but there can only be three winners...actually, I am giving out a 4th winner, because I LOVED, LOVED, LOVED the reply by AlfieisKing... You win a year's season ticket and you have inspired the next contest! More after today's winners...
First, here are the three winners of a HockeyBuzz Season Ticket for submitting not only the three most terrible signings, but backing them up with info...
BINGO:
Jeff Finger.
It's gotta be Jeff Finger. Not only did it not work out, there was virtually no chance of it working out. It made no sense. That contract he signed was worth 6.2% of the cap at the time, equivalent of about a $5 million per year contract today. Basically he got a very similar contract to the one that the Bruins just signed Charlie McAvoy to. It's just that Finger was 28 years old and had only played 94 pretty unspectacular NHL games in his career at that point.
adambuffalo I have to go with Ville Leino. His last season in Buffalo before his buyout he had Zero goals in 58 games with a pitiful 38 shots on goal. At the time he was signed the contract was 7% of the cap. 137 games for 10 total goals. He had that many in 30 playoff games with the Flyers.
Burnt_Juice Aside from the pricey contract, below are the picks and possibilities. Understanding that hindsight is 20/20, they could have selected some serious talent with a time machine. Note that this are biased selections of players still available at the time. There were plenty, these were the ones that stood out to me.
Pick #
(player selected at this number)
Other players still available at the time
1st Round Pick #12
(Tyler Myers)
Erik Karlsson
Jordan Eberle*
John Carlson
Roman Josi
* - ended up drafted by Edmonton later in the round
** - ended up playing for Edmonton eventually
Finally, I love this post in the comment thread by
AlfieisKing... The Crap Contract All-Stars!
Milan Lucic - David Bolland - Bobby Ryan
Loui Eriksson - David Backes - David Clarkson
Bryan Bickell - Ville Leino - Nathan Horton
Martin Havlat - Stephen Weiss - Matt Beleskey
Wade Redden - Erik Karlsson*
Christian Ehrhof - Matt Carle
Jake Gardiner - Jeff Finger
Rick Dipietro
Ilya Bryzgalov
I will give out another season ticket to anyone who can better this list...and explain why...
Have at it!!!
Buzzcast with Kevin Allen at 1pm...Today we will discuss Alfie's list, along with the greatest all-time Red Wings...