UPDATED: AUGUST 2018
What are the Phoenix Coyotes 15 best and 15 worst non-entry level
contracts they have signed since the NHL had a salary cap? The Coyotes have mostly been a "salary floor" team that is too cheap to hand out blockbuster contracts. This is reflected on their worst contracts list.
BEST
1- Oliver Ekmanlarsson, Mar 15 2013, 6 years
$33M: Signed by Don Maloney. He is such a good defenseman on such a bad
team. He’s averaged around 25 minutes of ice time per game and twice eclipsed
220 shots on goal in a season. Year three produced his best individual season
at 55 PTS. Through 5 years of this contract, OEL has not played a playoff game
and is -81.
2- Shane Doan, Feb 14 2007, 5 years $22.7M:
Signed by Mike Barnett. Doan scored 316 PTS in 395 GP while serving as team
captain. Also contributed 1154 Shots on Goal with 877 Hits. You couldn’t ask
for much more from a power forward.
3- Mike Smith, July 1 2011, 2 years $4M:
Signed by Don Maloney. This contract included a run to the Conference finals.
These might have been the best two seasons of Mike Smith’s career (2.33 GAA and
.924 SV%). Way to capture “Peak Smith” at a bargain price. Scroll down to see
his next contract.
4- Keith Yandle, July 17 2009, 2 years $2.4M:
Signed by Don Maloney. He scored 30 PTS in 69 GP in the last year of his entry
level before signing this contract. He jumped up to 41 PTS in year one and 59
PTS in year two. That’s a bargain at that price.
5- Martin Hanzal, Oct 8 2011, 5 years $15.5M:
Signed by Don Maloney. He ran into some injury issues on this contract but
still managed to produce 167 PTS in 276 GP with 657 shots, 676 hits, and 4755
face-off wins. That’s good.
6- Ilya Bryzgalov, Jan 22 2008, 3 years $12.8M:
Signed by Don Maloney. Over the last 2 seasons of this contract, Bryz had a
win-loss record of 78-40. Anytime you get a winning % that high for that price,
it must be considered a bargain. He was good (2.58 GAA and .916 SV%). His next
contract however, is on the all-time terrible contracts list.
7- Radim Vrbata, July 1 2011, 3 years $9M:
Signed by Don Maloney. In year one of this contract he jumped up to 35 goals and
62 PTS, finishing with 141 PTS in 191 GP. He earned his $9M with that
production.
8- Ray Whitney, July 1 2010, 2 years $6M:
Signed by Don Maloney. Ray put up 77 PTS in year two at 39 years old. He’s on
the list of best performing assets over age 35 in the modern NHL.
9- Keith Yandle, July 5
2011, 5 years $26.3M: Signed by Don
Maloney. In 378 GP he scored 225 PTS from the blueline, averaging over 22
minutes per game of ice time. Very talented offensive defenseman.
10- Devan Dubnyk, July
1 2014, 1 year $800K: Signed by Don
Maloney. This probably belongs on the Minnesota Wild best contracts list, but
it was signed in Arizona. The big goalie did not do much in his 19 games in
Phoenix, but he was traded to the Wild for a 3rd round pick and
caught fire, putting up a 1.78 GAA and .936 SV% in 39 GP for Minnesota, earning
himself Vezina votes.
11- Kyle Turris, Nov 22
2011, 2 years $2.8M: Signed by Don
Maloney. He played 103 games, scoring 58 PTS. Granted he scored all those PTS
in Ottawa after being traded for David Rundblad and a 2nd round pick
(which in hindsight was a terrible trade for Phoenix).
12- Zbynek Michalek, Apr
14 2006, 4 years $5M: Signed by Mike
Barnett. He played nearly 23 minutes of ice time per game under this contract,
while scoring 89 PTS in 311 GP. That’s good value at that price.
13- Radim Vrbata, Aug 16 2016, 1 year $3.3M:
Signed by John Chayka. This was signed as $1M base salary and $2.3M in bonuses.
He hit all his bonus clauses with 81 GP, 20 goals, 55 PTS. Good season at a
fair price. If a guy gets more expensive because he hit his bonus clauses, that’s
a good problem to have.
14- Martin Hanzal, Sep 10 2010, 2 years $3.6M:
Signed by Don Maloney. That’s a good price for 60 PTS. He also contributed 386
hits and over 1000 face off wins.
15- Eric Belanger, Sep 14 2010, 1 year $750K:
Signed by Don Maloney. That’s a great price for 40 PTS. This season earned him
a big UFA deal with Edmonton that ended in a buyout. For 2010/11 at least, he
was good.
WORST
1- Ed Jovanovski, July 1 2006, 5 years $32.5M:
Signed by Mike Barnett. He was a good defenseman for the first half of this
contract, but declined significantly towards the end. His average ice time
shrank each year, which is not unexpected on a 5-year deal given to a
30-year-old player. Remember that adjusting for cap inflation that AAV is
closer to $10.7M.
2- Mike Ribeiro, July 5 2013, 4 years $22M:
Signed by Don Maloney. He played 1 season scoring 47 PTS and was bought out.
What had to happen for a team bleeding money to buy out an expensive contract
getting nothing in return? There were some shenanigans in his personal life.
3- Connor Murphy, July 28 2016, 6 years $23M:
Signed by John Chayka. The Coyotes shipped this contract to Chicago after one
season for Hjalmersson. Murphy has been a huge disappointment in Chicago and
his contract is starting to look really bad. There is still time for him to improve
but also reasons to be concerned.
4- Nick Boynton, June 28 2006, 3 years $8.9M:
Signed by Mike Barnett. The only thing he was good at in Phoenix was
taking penalties. That AAV is closer to $5M when accounting for salary cap
inflation.
5- Wojtek Wolski, June 24 2010, 2 years $7.6M:
Signed by Don Maloney. The Coyotes picked a bad time to invest in the
24-year-old Wolski, who saw his production fall by almost half in year one.
They managed to trade him to the Rangers for a 3rd round pick
before the bottom really fell out, which was a smart move.
6- Mike Smith, June 30 2013, 6 years $34M:
Signed by Don Maloney. In years two, three, four of this contract he had 48
wins, 81 loses, 2.95 GAA, .910 SV%, and zero playoff games. That’s not elite
goaltending. Perhaps you can blame it on the team, but there were still some
good defensemen playing in front of him. He was shipped of to Calgary with 2
years remaining for a good return and played well in Calgary until he was
injured.
7- Zbynek Michalek, July 1 2015, 2 years $6.2M:
Signed by Don Maloney. That’s a bit pricey for 7 PTS in 73 GP. There was
an injury in there to consider, but he still wasn’t much good when he was
healthy.
8- Derek Morris, Mar 8
2006, 3 years $11.8M: Signed by Mike
Barnett. That AAV would be like $7M with a $79M salary cap, which is too expensive
for a player like this. He wasn’t terrible, he was just overpaid for what he
provided, averaging 23 PTS per season and 21 minutes of ice time per game.
9- Jamie McGinn, July 1 2016, 3 years $10M:
Signed by John Chayka. He had a career year with 39 PTS in 84 GP the
season before signing this contract. The Coyotes paid him a good wage to score
17 PTS in 72 GP in year one, then shipped him to Florida for Jason Demers.
10- Shane Doan, Sep 15 2012, 4 years $21.2M:
Signed by Don Maloney. A 4-year deal for a 34-year-old player is a big risk. He
scored 157 PTS in 268 GP, which isn’t terrible, but at that price is still
expensive.
11- Lauri Korpikoski, July
5 2013, 4 years $10M: Signed by Don
Maloney. In 3 seasons he played 204 games, scoring 68 PTS and was bought out
before the last season.
12- Antoine Vermette, July 1 2015, 2 years
$7.5M: Signed by Don Maloney. The Coyotes bought out this contract after
just one season, and that never made sense to me. Vermette was just as good in
2015/16 as he was in 2014/15, maybe even better. There may be more to this
story that we didn’t hear.
13- Petr Prucha, June 19 2009, 2 years $2.4M: Signed
by Don Maloney. In year one he scored 22 PTS in 79 GP. Year two he played most
of his games in the AHL.
14- Steve Downie, July 1 2015, 1 year $1.8M: Signed
by Don Maloney. Downie scored 6 PTS in 26 NHL GP and was sent to the AHL.
15- Kurt Sauer, July 1 2008, 4 years $7M: Signed
by Don Maloney. He scored 7 PTS in 69 GP before a head injury ended his career.
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