If you read my previous article about some of the best contracts in the NHL, if you haven’t you can check it out HERE. You would have saw that I mentioned the infamous Loui Eriksson signing the Canucks made back in 2016, and like I said in that article, I’m not bitter… I promise. But when I was thinking about how bad the Eriksson signing was, he arguably wasn’t even the worst free agent signing that year. The 2016 free agency class is often regarded as one of the worst of all time. As I mentioned in my other article, general managers get desperate and throw a lot of money at players during free agency. Sometimes that works out, but most times it doesn’t. The contracts age horribly. 2016 took that to another level, so sit back and relax as I take you through and rank some of the worst contracts given out in the summer of 2016.
- Loui Eriksson Six-Years $36 Million – Vancouver Canucks
Okay, let’s get the big one out of the way. Loui Eriksson to the Canucks. His play on the ice is beside the point because a rebuilding team signing a 30-year-old winger whose best days were behind him made no sense in the first place. I think the perfect play to sum up Eriksson’s time in Vancouver happened in his very first game, where he scored an own goal. If that’s not a bad omen, I don’t know what is. Eriksson only had 24 points in 65 games in his first season in Vancouver. The stat that depresses me the most about Eriksson’s time in Vancouver is that the year before we signed him, he scored 30 goals in Boston. He didn’t score 30 goals in total as a Canuck until midway through 2018. I don’t want to rip into Eriksson too much because management were the ones who signed him to that deal. Eriksson’s hefty cap hit was one of the main reasons the Canucks weren’t able to re-sign Tyler Toffoli, Chris Tanev, and Jacob Markstrom in 2020. The Canucks shipped Eriksson off to Arizona with only one year remaining on his deal, officially marking the end of an era that Canucks fans will hope to try and forget. Eriksson ended up finishing his time in Vancouver with 38 goals, 52 assists, for a total of 90 points in 252 games… yikes.
2. Milan Lucic Seven-Years $42 Million – Edmonton Oilers
At one point in time, Lucic was one of the best power forwards in the NHL. After a one-year stint with the Los Angeles Kings, where he scored 20 goals and put up 55 points, Lucic was looking for a big contract. Boy, did he ever get that. The Edmonton Oilers saw Lucic as the perfect linemate for Connor McDavid for seven years to come. Yeah, I know, crazy to think about that now. However, Lucic’s first year in Edmonton wasn’t horrible, he scored 23 goals and had 50 points. Edmonton went to the second round of the playoffs, and McDavid won his first Hart Trophy and scoring title. But it quickly went downhill from there. In Lucic’s second season, he only scored 10 goals and put up 34 points. He also played the whole season, which is quite the dropoff if you ask me. The year after he scored six goals before being traded to Calgary. Lucic would play out the rest of his contract in Calgary, but he never lived up to his contract. Even though his contract was longer than Eriksson’s, Lucic was at least still in the lineup contributing in some way. Eriksson was a healthy scratch a lot of the time, which is why I have Eriksson ranked above Lucic.
- David Backes Five-Years $30 Million -Boston Bruins
The Bruins signing Backes may seem a bit more justified than the previous two signings I mentioned, but at the same time, not really. Sure, the Bruins were a contending team, and Backes was one of the best two-way centers in the league, so the signing on paper may have made sense… maybe. But what I can’t justify is giving a 30-year-old center who’s been dealing with injuries and whose best days looked to be behind him that lengthy of a contract at six million per season. Throw in the fact that the Bruins already had Patrice Bergeron and David Krejci locked up long-term as well, who were also two of the best two-way centers in the NHL. Signing Backes was sort of like putting a hat on a hat, it was just unnecessary, and it would have been smarter to spend that money elsewhere. The icing on the cake was that Backes was a healthy scratch in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup final. Not what you want to see out of a player making six million dollars. Luckily, the Bruins were able to move on from Backes’s contract by trading him to Anaheim in 2020.
- Frans Nielsen Six-Years $31.5 Million – Detroit Red Wings
Detroit was hoping to be a front-runner for Steven Stamkos in free agency so they could add an elite center to their roster. Unfortunately for them and several other teams, Stamkos never even hit free agency and signed an eight-year extension in Tampa Bay. So, like everyone else, Detroit had to go for plan B. That was Frans Nielsen… because the perfect consolation prize for Steven Stamkos was a 32-year-old center who had never eclipsed more than 58 points in a season. Nielsen was already starting to regress in his last couple of years with the New York Islanders. That continued in Detroit, in his first year in the Motor City, he only had 41 points. In his second year, he had 33. It became pretty clear that Nielsen was not the answer the Red Wings were hoping for. Detroit ended up buying out the final year of Nielsen’s contract.
5. Andrew Ladd Seven-Years $38.5 Million New York Islanders
This signing perfectly sums up Garth Snow’s tenure as general manager of the New York Islanders. Let your original player in Kyle Okposo walk for nothing, then try to replace him with an aging veteran in Andrew Ladd. Ladd’s best days were clearly behind him and he was never the gritty top-six forward the Islanders were hoping for. Ladd played a physical style of hockey his whole career, I know this all too well as a Canucks fan. His playing style was starting to catch up to him as the injuries began to pile up. The Islanders placed him on waivers three years into the deal, and then traded him to the Coyotes as a cap dump. All in all, a terrible move for the Islanders.
Looking back at these signings, I can’t help but think that these were players GM’s were hoping would help them win Stanley Cups. But I guess hindsight is 20/20. Did I miss anything? Who do you think is a horrible free agency signing?