According to [**Dom Luszczyszyn**](https://theathletic.com/author/dom-luszczyszyn/)**,** Ben’s Contract doesn’t rank in the top 10.
[https://theathletic.com/4690343/2023/07/26/nhl-worst-contracts-jones-parayko-huberdeau/](https://theathletic.com/4690343/2023/07/26/nhl-worst-contracts-jones-parayko-huberdeau/)
1. Seth Jones
2. Colton Parayko
3. Jonathan Huberdeau
4. Tyler Seguin
5. Marc-Edouard Vlasic
6. Brayden Schenn
7. Travis Sanheim’
8. Ryan Strome
9. Darnell Nurse
10. Nicklas Backstrom
As they said on Coffee Talk, Talk amongst yourselves
by AgeOfTheExpandingMan
11 Comments
And yet it doesn’t really affect us in any way.
When I saw the contract Nurse signed last year, I thought, “Holland is doing to Edmonton what he did to Detroit.”
[Change my mind](https://imgflip.com/i/7ttae9)
Does anyone actually think his contract is worse than any of these? Its bad, but not egregious.
It also won’t matter in a relatively short time
A lot of these contracts are bad because they severely limit the team’s ability to sign depth players on a cap-crunched team. The wings don’t have this issue cuz of so much cap space (well at least before all of our FA signings).
Additionally, a lot of these signings are bad cuz of the term. Chiarot’s contract isn’t that bad, only going into his age 34 season. Huberdeau’s ends at 37, Schenn’s ends at 36, Backstrom’s ends at 37.
I’ve been a very avid and vocal Chiarot hater in this sub and Chiarot’s contract is awful for sure, but it isn’t nearly as bad as any of these in the top 10.
The difference is all these players are far better than Chiarot. He was really bad. I’m not totally sour yet, and I wasn’t OVERLY mad when we signed him, but when you couple his contract with Copp and Compher, it’s 15 mil for the next 4 years in players that aren’t that good/what this team needs. Everyone keeps using the Raymond/Seider extensions as reasons why we can’t sign a big name player, but these three contracts pay for 1.5< of that.
Side note, I’m still amazed Karlsson manged to work himself off of this list. He was an annual lock for this list for awhile.
Ben chariot’s contract is a middle tier contract at a middle tier length. And his play is a bit below middle tier. The red wings didn’t pay anything in trade; only in cap space which they have had and still have PLENTY of.
I think Chiarot will be better this coming season. By the end of last year it seemed like he finally understood we don’t need him as an offensive D and he stayed at home quite a bit more. I don’t know if we will ever think he is worth his contract, but I think he will play close enough to it, no one will care anymore.
No criticism to the OP, it’s cool to share outside takes on the team, but I personally don’t care at all about his contract. The ownership isn’t running out of money, we’re not hitting the cap, and he’s not the worst player on the team or league. Additionally, there are things about his game that I like which (probably non-coincidentally) are things the wings lacked, so while it’s good to think critically about team decisions etc, I’d love to hear new thoughts and ideas in general rather than the same four high points and lowlights.
It would be a lot worse if we were serious contenders. But until then we have the bad team tax until we can become perennial contenders again and it doesn’t look nearly as bad as these. + the term isn’t horrible