5 NHL Contracts Signed in 2022 That Teams Could Regret

With NHL training camps opening next week and the 2022-23 season starting on Oct. 13, most teams have used up their salary-cap space signing free agents. Many of the significant signings took place in late June and early July when clubs had the cap room to invest in re-signing key talent or bolstering their roster through the free-agent market.

The general managers who inked those players believe they'll be getting good value for their investments. However, there could be a handful of decisions end up regretting.

Signing an aging player to a long deal, as the Pittsburgh Penguins did with Kris Letang, is a gamble that could eventually become a drain on a team's payroll. Alternatively, signing a promising young player to an expensive contract on the basis of one good season could backfire if he fails to blossom into stardom.

Here are five NHL contracts signed this year that could end up giving their teams buyer's remorse.

Do you agree or disagree with our list? Is there a player we missed that you believe should be here? Let us know in the comments section below.

The Calgary Flames handed out two of this summer's biggest contracts. One came when they reached an agreement with winger Jonathan Huberdeau on an eight-year, $84 million contract extension that kicks in next season. The other inked Nazem Kadri to a seven-year, $49 million deal on Aug. 18.

Huberdeau's deal is much more expensive, but the 29-year-old winger is among the league's elite playmakers, finishing with 115 points last season. Kadri, who turns 32 on Oct. 6, is a skillful and agitating two-way center who had a career-best 87-point performance while helping the Colorado Avalanche win the 2022 Stanley Cup.

Kadri's contract could become the more troublesome of the two down the road. While still in his playing prime, he will likely find it difficult to remain an effective second-line center heading into his mid-thirties.

It's a gamble that could pay off for Flames general manager Brad Treliving if Kadri helps his new club become a serious Stanley Cup contender. If he doesn't, his $7 million annual salary-cap hit through 2028-29 will become a drag on their payroll that could prove difficult to shed.

The Carolina Hurricanes pulled off a rare, successful offer-sheet signing last August when they pried Jesperi Kotkaniemi away from the Montreal Canadiens with a one-year, $6.1 million contract—an offer the cap-strapped Canadiens couldn't match.

After struggling to establish himself as a reliable top-six forward in Montreal, Kotkaniemi had a terrific opportunity to prove himself in Carolina. Instead, he had another underwhelming effort with just 29 points in 66 games while playing checking line minutes.

Hurricanes management, however, believed in young Kotkaniemi's potential and inked him to an eight-year, $38.6 million contract on March 21. His $4.8 million average annual value could become quite a bargain if he blossoms into the top-six forward he was projected to become when chosen third overall by the Canadiens in 2018.

However, there's also the possibility that Kotkaniemi tops out as a third-line center for the rest of his career, turning his $5 million annual salary for the next eight years into a costly gamble. It could also take away valuable cap space the Hurricanes need to put toward re-signing core players such as Sebastian Aho, Teuvo Teravainen and Jaccob Slavin.

The Pittsburgh Penguins ensured two of their longtime stars remained in the fold this summer, re-signing Kris Letang and Evgeni Malkin to long-term contracts. Letang, 35, inked a six-year, $36.6 million contract on July 7, while Malkin (who turned 36 on July 31) agreed to a four-year, $24.4 million deal hours before free agency began on July 13.

Both players accepted a lower average annual salary ($6.1 million) on their new contracts compared to their previous ones. Letang's dropped from $7.25 million, while Malkin's fell from $9.5 million.

However, the length of those contracts for two mid-thirties players could prove burdensome to the Penguins' salary cap, especially during the final years of their deals as their skills inevitably decline.

Of the two contracts, Letang's could prove more worrisome because of the extra two years the Penguins gave him. He's a well-conditioned defenseman coming off a career-best 68-point performance in 2021-22, and he could remain the anchor of their blue line over the first two or three years of that new deal.

However, the problem is Letang will be 41 when this deal expires. The closer a player gets to 40, the more likely his speed and skills significantly decline. Injuries also take longer to heal and could hamper his performance. As his production erodes and his playing time is reduced, that $6.1 million cap hit could end up taking away cap space that could have been used on a better young player.

The New Jersey Devils have missed the playoffs for four straight seasons and were in need of an experienced, top-six winger to accelerate their rebuild, so they signed Ondrej Palat to a five-year, $30 million contract on July 14.

During his 10 seasons with the Tampa Bay Lightning, Palat helped them reach the Stanley Cup Final four times and win hockey's holy grail twice. He's earned a reputation as a skilled two-way winger with six 40-plus point seasons on his resume. Palat is also a clutch performer with 12 game-winning goals in the postseason.

Palat's championship experience should prove invaluable to the Devils' quest to become Cup contenders. However, he's also appeared in a lot more games than his new teammates in recent years when factoring in his 138 playoff games, with 71 of them coming in the past three years.

Now 31, Palat will help the Devils improve over the next couple of seasons. However, the closer he gets to his mid-thirties, the more likely his performance will decline, especially considering how much postseason hockey he's played. Should that decline occur, his $6 million annual salary-cap hit could become a headache for management as they attempt to maintain a competitive roster within the constraints of the cap.

After four seasons with a combined 35 points with the St. Louis Blues and Buffalo Sabres, Tage Thompson enjoyed a breakout performance in 2021-22. His team-leading 68 points earned him a seven-year contract extension from the Sabres, which starts in 2023-24 with an average annual value of $7.1 million.

Unlike the others on this list, the 24-year-old Thompson isn't a veteran with a long resume of success to justify his hefty new contract. As TSN's Travis Yost observed in his Sept. 5 assessment of the contract, the Sabres are making a big, risky bet on a player whose body of work makes him difficult to evaluate.

In th past, the Sabres have made long-term investments on players such as Christian Ehrhoff, Ville Leino and Jeff Skinner who failed to play up to expectations. Thompson's new deal could also end up going sideways if he struggles to build upon last season's success.

Thompson, who turns 25 on Oct. 30, still has what should be several prime years ahead of him. The Sabres' gamble could pay off handsomely. On the other hand, it could blow up in their faces, leaving them with another salary-cap headache to deal with.

Contract info via NHL.com and Cap Friendly with additional info via Hockey-Reference.com.