10 Best NHL UFA Contracts Given Out July 1st (2006-2018)

What have been the 10 best UFA contracts signed on July 1st since the NHL had a salary cap? The one thing that should be immediately clear, the Worst far outweighs the Best. There were some easy picks at the top of the best list, but it started to get thin really fast. By contrast, it was impossible to narrow the Worst list down to only 10, so I needed to expand to the 20 Worst July 1st UFAs.

Best NHL July 1 UFA Contracts

1- Marian Hossa, July 1 2009, 12 years $63.3M: Signed by Dale Tallon. They won 3 Stanley Cups on this contract (with Hossa contributing 73 playoff PTS). In the regular season he scored 415 PTS in 534 GP. There was going to be a large “cap recapture penalty” when Hossa retired, but the team managed to avoid that because of a skin rash. They avoided any penalty, had incredible success during his run, then dumped the remaining IR write-off on Phoenix. Beauty!

2- Zdeno Chara, July 1 2006, 5 years $37.5M: Signed by Peter Chiarelli. This contract produced a Norris trophy and a Stanley Cup for Boston. Those two things alone should be enough to qualify for this list. He averaged over 26 minutes per game and scored 232 PTS in 398 GP in the regular season.

3- Henrik Sedin, July 1 2009, 5 years $30.5M: Signed by Mike Gillis. Brian Burke was on a plane to Sweden when this contract was signed. I’m sure these guys felt a great loyalty to Brian for what he did to get them together, but they love Vancouver a little bit more. Henrik was the League MVP in year one when he led the league in scoring. Over this contract he scored 382 PTS in 364 GP in the regular season with 44 PTS in 46 GP in the playoffs and came within 1 win of the Stanley Cup.

4- John Tavares, July 1 2018, 7 years $77M: Signed by Kyle Dubas. Time will tell if the Toronto Maple Leafs reap benefits from the Tavares signing, but the early returns have produced some good results.

5- Daniel Sedin, July 1 2009, 5 years $30.5M: Signed by Mike Gillis. Daniel was nominated for the Hart Trophy in year two when he led the league in scoring but was edged out by Corey Perry. Over this contract he scored 343 PTS in 337 GP in the regular season with 39 PTS in 43 GP in the playoffs and came within 1 win of the Stanley Cup.

6- Brian Rafalski, July 1 2007, 5 years $30M: Signed by Ken Holland. While Rafalski retired before the contract expired, it did produce a Stanley Cup for the Red Wings, with 40 PTS in 63 playoff GP, and 204 PTS in 292 regular season GP. 

7- Jonathon Marchessault, July 1 2016, 2 years $1.5M: Signed by Tom Rowe. Florida took a gamble on a player who scored 18 PTS in 45 GP at a rock bottom price and produced 126 PTS in 152 GP. Lost him in the expansion draft.

8- Eric Staal, July 1 2016, 3 years $10.5M: Signed by Chuck Fletcher. They took a risk on a 31-year-old player coming off a full season with 39 PTS, and it paid off. Staal scored an impressive 65 PTS in year one, which was his highest point total since 2012.

9- Brian Campbell, July 1 2008, 8 years $57M: Signed by Dale Tallon. This contract did return poor value on the back half, but did accomplish the goal of winning a championship for the Blackhawks, including two seasons over 50 PTS from the blueline.

10- Chris Osgood, July 1st 2006, 2 years $1.6M: His regular season numbers were decent, but all that really matters here is that he went 14-4 in the playoffs with a 1.55 GAA and .930 SV% and won the Stanley Cup.