NHL's Most Expensive Forwards Per Point 2012

Who were the NHL's 100 most expensive forwards on a per point basis in 2012? The list only includes players making over $1.5 million per season (since they can hardly be considered expensive) and those who played at least 20 games. The list is ranked according to dollars spent for each point, except that all players are adjusted to 82 games played, so technically it is more like dollars paid for points per game. In this new age where players can be held out for months with a headache and guys get 20 game suspensions for hits that were legal 2 years ago, it seems only fair to use PTS per 82 GP divided by 2011/12 salary cap hit as the key variable to sort the most expensive forwards. The unadjusted dollars per point is still included in the data if you're interested, but it is ordered according to the adjusted value.

For example, The Leafs paid Colby Armstrong $1M for each of his 3 PTS, but had he played 82 GP and scored the 8 PTS he was on pace for, that would have been $353K per point (still good enough for #2 on the list). Nino Niederreiter played 55 games and had one point, for $2.8M. He's just a kid though, the veterans had larger body of work before getting their current contracts.

There are players like Pahlsson and Stoll that serve a purpose greater than goal scoring, but the guys on this list who are paid to produce offense constitute some of the NHL's worst contracts.

				adj	adjusted	unadjusted
Player	Team	GP	PTS	*PTS	$/*PT	$/PT
Nino Niederreiter	NYI	55	1	1.5	$1,874,695	$2,795,000
Colby Armstrong	TOR	29	3	8	$353,659	$1,000,000
Eric Fehr	WPG	35	3	7	$313,008	$733,333
Scott Gomez	MTL	38	11	24	$309,946	$668,831
Marco Sturm	FLA	48	5	9	$263,415	$450,000
Scottie Upshall	FLA	26	5	16	$221,951	$700,000
Dustin Penner	LAK	65	17	21	$198,171	$250,000
Jason Blake	ANA	45	12	22	$182,927	$333,333
Brian Rolston	BOS	70	24	28	$180,069	$210,938
Jarret Stoll	LAK	78	21	22	$163,066	$171,429
Shawn Horcoff	EDM	81	34	34	$159,792	$161,765
Ville Leino	BUF	71	25	29	$155,854	$180,000
Samuel Pahlsson	VAN	80	17	17	$152,080	$155,882
Blake Comeau	CGY	74	15	17	$150,407	$166,667
Joel Ward	WSH	73	18	20	$148,374	$166,667
Matthew Lombardi	TOR	62	18	24	$147,019	$194,444
Matt Stajan	CGY	61	18	24	$144,648	$194,444
Dany Heatley	MIN	82	53	53	$141,509	$141,509
Alexander Ovechkin	WSH	78	65	68	$139,587	$146,746
Brad Boyes	BUF	65	23	29	$137,858	$173,913
Ryan Smyth	EDM	82	46	46	$135,870	$135,870
Daymond Langkow	PHX	73	30	34	$133,537	$150,000
Rick Nash	CBJ	82	59	59	$132,203	$132,203
Manny Malhotra	VAN	78	18	19	$132,114	$138,889
Rene Bourque	MTL	76	24	26	$128,726	$138,889
Brian Gionta	MTL	31	15	40	$126,016	$333,333
Vincent Lecavalier	TBL	64	49	63	$123,082	$157,699
Paul Stastny	COL	79	53	55	$119,972	$124,528
Wojtek Wolski	FLA	31	12	32	$119,715	$316,667
Michael Frolik	CHI	63	15	20	$119,512	$155,556
Jochen Hecht	BUF	22	8	30	$118,216	$440,625
Mike Richards	LAK	74	44	49	$117,932	$130,682
Eric Staal	CAR	82	70	70	$117,857	$117,857
Mike Cammalleri	CGY	66	41	51	$117,787	$146,341
Alexander Semin	WSH	77	54	58	$116,509	$124,074
Brandon Dubinsky	NYR	77	34	36	$115,997	$123,529
Brayden Schenn	PHI	54	18	27	$113,780	$172,778
Daniel Briere	PHI	70	49	57	$113,240	$132,653
Tim Connolly	TOR	70	36	42	$112,636	$131,944
Thomas Vanek	BUF	78	61	64	$111,384	$117,096
Brooks Laich	WSH	82	41	41	$109,756	$109,756
Brenden Morrow	DAL	57	26	37	$109,615	$157,692
Patrick Marleau	SJS	82	64	64	$107,813	$107,813
David Booth	VAN	62	30	40	$107,114	$141,667
Mike Santorelli	FLA	60	11	15	$106,430	$145,455
Jarome Iginla	CGY	82	67	67	$104,478	$104,478
Eric Belanger	EDM	78	16	17	$104,040	$109,375
Jeff Carter	LAK	55	34	51	$104,017	$155,080
Mikko Koivu	MIN	55	44	66	$102,896	$153,409
Antoine Vermette	PHX	82	37	37	$101,351	$101,351
Brad Richards	NYR	82	66	66	$101,010	$101,010
Marian Gaborik	NYR	82	76	76	$98,684	$98,684
Tuomo Ruutu	CAR	72	34	39	$98,135	$111,765
Jamie Langenbrunner	STL	70	24	28	$97,815	$114,583
Nik Antropov	WPG	69	35	42	$97,670	$116,071
Mike Knuble	WSH	72	18	21	$97,561	$111,111
Ales Hemsky	EDM	69	36	43	$95,833	$113,889
Ryan Kesler	VAN	77	49	52	$95,819	$102,041
Patrick Kane	CHI	82	66	66	$95,455	$95,455
Magnus Paajarvi	EDM	41	8	16	$95,313	$190,625
Tomas Plekanec	MTL	81	52	53	$94,981	$96,154
Paul Gaustad	NSH	70	21	25	$93,496	$109,524
Ryan Getzlaf	ANA	82	57	57	$93,421	$93,421
Chris Stewart	STL	79	30	31	$92,327	$95,833
Andrew Cogliano	ANA	82	26	26	$91,923	$91,923
Tomas Kopecky	FLA	80	32	33	$91,463	$93,750
Joe Thornton	SJS	82	77	77	$90,909	$90,909
Sean Bergenheim	FLA	62	23	30	$90,403	$119,565
Brett Connolly	TBL	68	15	18	$90,298	$108,889
Anze Kopitar	LAK	82	76	76	$89,474	$89,474
Bobby Ryan	ANA	82	57	57	$89,474	$89,474
Michael Grabner	NYI	78	32	34	$89,177	$93,750
Matt Cullen	MIN	73	35	39	$89,024	$100,000
Derek Roy	BUF	80	44	45	$88,692	$90,909
Henrik Zetterberg	DET	82	69	69	$88,164	$88,164
Martin Havlat	SJS	39	27	57	$88,076	$185,185
RJ Umberger	CBJ	77	40	43	$88,034	$93,750
Andrew Ladd	WPG	82	50	50	$88,000	$88,000
Shane Doan	PHX	79	50	52	$87,671	$91,000
Zach Parise	NJD	82	69	69	$86,957	$86,957
Corey Perry	ANA	80	60	62	$86,585	$88,750
Vernon Fiddler	DAL	82	21	21	$85,714	$85,714
Mason Raymond	VAN	55	20	30	$85,518	$127,500
Pavel Datsyuk	DET	70	67	78	$85,366	$100,000
Simon Gagne	LAK	34	17	41	$85,366	$205,882
Michal Handzus	SJS	67	24	29	$85,112	$104,167
Dave Bolland	CHI	76	37	40	$84,542	$91,216
Pierre-Marc Bouchard	MIN	37	22	49	$83,681	$185,455
David Backes	STL	82	54	54	$83,333	$83,333
Jason Spezza	OTT	80	84	86	$81,301	$83,333
Matt Duchene	COL	58	28	40	$80,836	$114,286
David Legwand	NSH	78	53	56	$80,764	$84,906
Milan Hejduk	COL	81	37	37	$80,092	$81,081
Daniel Sedin	VAN	72	67	76	$79,942	$91,045
Jonathan Toews	CHI	59	57	79	$79,525	$110,526
Andrei Kostitsyn	NSH	72	36	41	$79,268	$90,278
Drew Stafford	BUF	80	50	51	$78,049	$80,000
Nicklas Backstrom	WSH	42	44	86	$77,993	$152,273
Ryan Malone	TBL	68	48	58	$77,744	$93,750
Daniel Cleary	DET	75	33	36	$77,605	$84,848