The NHL’s worst contracts always spark debate, and in Toronto that conversation tends to land on the Maple Leafs’ highest-paid names. Fans have spent years arguing that the team’s core hasn’t delivered enough for the money attached to it. But when The Athletic’s Dom Luszczyszyn put together his latest contract rankings, none of the Leafs cracked the top 10.
Luszczyszyn said the exercise wasn’t just about who has underperformed this season. He explained that the rankings were built around projected value for the rest of each contract, not only the 2026-27 season.
“The goal here is to grade contracts empirically, with the same context being applied to each player across the league: How much value does each player bring to the table per year and over the life of the contract?” Luszczyszyn wrote, adding that his formula compared a player’s Net Rating and the expected salary of each player.
At the top of the list, Jonathan Huberdeau claimed the unwanted distinction for the third straight year. The Calgary Flames forward is on an eight-year deal carrying a $10.5 million US annual average value, and he still has five years left on it.
The problem, according to the numbers, is simple: he hasn’t come close to matching that price tag. The Athletic pegs Huberdeau’s market value at just $4.8 million, which is less than half of what he makes.
There were other Canadian-team names scattered through the rankings, including Edmonton Oilers’ Trent Frederic, Jake Walman and Vancouver Canucks’ Elias Pettersson. But when it came to the Maple Leafs, no one made the top 10.
Morgan Rielly is the kind of player some fans might have expected to show up, especially with his eight-year, $60-million contract and no-trade clause. Even so, the numbers didn’t push him anywhere near the league’s worst bargains.
His $7.5 million AAV placed him outside the top 100 players in the NHL last season at No. 103.
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