In any professional sports league with a salary cap, teams are going to have bad contracts. The NHL is no different in that regard, as there have been plenty of ugly deals over the years since the salary cap was first introduced ahead of the 2005-06 season.
The Flames, like many teams, have had their fair share of bad contracts over the years. Troy Brouwer’s four-year deal signed ahead of the 2016-17 season was a bad one in retrospect, while James Neal’s five-year deal signed prior to the 2018-19 campaign was an outright disaster. That said, neither were nearly as bad of contracts as one they are dealing with right now.
Huberdeau’s Disastrous Deal
At times, there are contracts many can see being disastrous from the second they are signed. One prime example of this was when the Toronto Maple Leafs tendered David Clarkson a seven-year deal during the 2013 offseason. This was a case of a team who was in desperate need of a big, power forward, and were forced to overpay given that several other organizations were interested. Sure enough, the now-retired Clarkson was shipped off just a season and a half later and his contract turned out to be just as bad as everyone had imagined it would be.
Other times, contracts can become worse than anybody had anticipated. That is the case of Jonathan Huberdeau, who — after recording a career-high 115 points in his final season with the Florida Panthers — signed an eight-year, $84 million extension with the Flames. While the $10.5 million salary was viewed as a slight overpay, it seemed relatively fair value for what he had produced over the last several seasons. There was concern about how it could age in the final few years, but that was looked at as a problem to deal with down the road.
What no one anticipated, however, was that the deal would turn ugly before it even began. In his first season with the Flames, Huberdeau was still on an old contract, which carried a cap hit of $5.9 million. That was a major bargain during his days with the Panthers, but was arguably an overpay in itself in his first season with the Flames, as he recorded just 55 points in 2022-23, a 60-point decline from the season prior.
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When the Flames fired head coach Darryl Sutter after the 2022-23 campaign, fans had hope Huberdeau would be able to find his game once again, as things clearly weren’t working between him and the 65-year-old. Unfortunately, things have gotten no better in 2023-24.
Through 34 games, Huberdeau has just four goals and 15 points. This isn’t a case of bad puck luck, either. The 30-year-old is often completely irrelevant, and when he is, it is often because of untimely turnovers or missed passes in the offensive zone. He doesn’t look anything like a player capable of producing the 115 points he did not so long ago.
Not only does Huberdeau’s contract carry a ridiculously high cap hit (10th highest in the NHL), but it also has seven seasons after this remaining. His deal carries a full no-movement clause until the end of the 2028-29 season, and modified no-trade clause along with a no-movement clause through the final two seasons. What this means is that he can never be sent to the American Hockey League and he has full control over a trade until the end of 2028-29. Once the 2029-30 season begins, he would then submit a 12-team list of organizations he would be willing to be traded to.
There are other contracts in the NHL, both past and present, that are viewed as unmovable. Often times, however, those deals can be traded if the team looking to move on is willing to retain salary and/or attach a draft pick or prospect. Given how much term is left on this deal, however, it seems as though it is truly unmovable. As tough as it is to swallow, the Flames are stuck with it and have no options other than to ride it out.
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Other deals that come to mind when discussing the worst contracts in the salary-cap era are Rick DiPietro’s 15-year deal signed back in 2006 with the New York Islanders, Ilya Kovalchuk’s 15-year deal signed with the New Jersey Devils in 2010, and Ilya Bryzgalov’s nine-year deal signed with the Philadelphia Flyers in 2011.
While DiPietro’s deal was undeniably a disaster, it was much more buyout friendly than Huberdeau’s deal. It also carried a significantly lower $4.5 million cap hit, although the league’s salary cap was also much lower at the time. Ultimately, the Islanders were able to get out of it ahead of the 2013-14 season, although it is continuing to take up $1.5 million of their cap space and will continue to do so through the 2028-29 season. As ugly as it was, they were able to remove themselves from it, something that the Flames don’t seem likely to be able to do with Huberdeau’s.
As for Kovalchuk, he performed well during his time with the Devils, registering 89 goals and 201 points in 222 games. That production likely would have continued and, if so, wouldn’t have had this deal seem very ugly at all. The issue is that he only played out three seasons of the deal before choosing to head to Russia and play in the KHL. As a result, the deal was terminated, though the Devils have had to deal with a recapture penalty costing them $250,000 in cap space. That recapture penalty will come to an end after the 2024-25 season.
Last but not least was Bryzgalov’s deal with the Flyers, which turned into a circus show almost immediately after being signed. Like Huberdeau’s, many believed this deal could work well for the Flyers, though some worried if playing in a hockey-crazed market may be hard to handle for the quirky Russian netminder.
That proved to be the case, as Bryzgalov struggled immensely in each of his first two seasons with the Flyers. Aside from his on-ice struggles, he would routinely give bizarre answers in media scrums, leading to him becoming a major distraction for his team. The Flyers had little choice but to buy him out after his second season with them in 2012-13. Similar to DiPietro’s, this turned into a terrible contract very early on, but wasn’t buyout proof.
Huberdeau’s Contract Will Be Talked About for Years
Even after this Huberdeau deal comes to an end, it won’t stop being discussed. Unless something changes in a hurry, it will be looked at as perhaps the top example whenever bad deals get brought up, perhaps over Clarkson, DiPietro, Kovalchuk, or Bryzgalov. It may also serve as a warning to teams when it comes to signing a player to an extension before they have ever played a game for the organization. While no one would have predicted Huberdeau’s game to decline this quickly, it would have been much better to have seen how things played out for half a season or so before committing to him long term for so much money.
