Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026 begins in the quiet after a bad home loss. Cold air slips under the arena doors. A general manager sits alone, staring at a cap sheet that does not care about effort. One injury shows up on the report. Another name shows up on waivers. The roster needs a backup goalie, a steady third pair defender, and a winger who can keep up in the neutral zone. The money exists in theory. The money never appears in practice. That is the trap inside Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026. A rising ceiling should feel like freedom. A few veteran numbers turn it into a cage.
Future Forecast ground rules
This story runs as a Future Forecast and 2026 Simulation from the vantage point of January 2026. The cap ranges cited come from widely reported league and union guidance. Contract figures come from public cap databases and contract trackers, including PuckPedia listings.
Two mechanics in this piece require extra clarity.
Real world rules already shape retained salary trades and LTIR usage. This simulation also layers in forecasted tightening that has circulated in league reporting and cap community explainers. When the text models a hypothetical transaction or a projected rule constraint, it labels that scenario as simulated. No reader should confuse this with a breaking news report.
The cap climbs, but mistakes keep charging interest
Cap growth sounds like oxygen. The league’s published road map made the jump tangible. Per a Reuters report dated January 31, 2025, the cap ceiling rises to $95.5 million for 2025 to 26, then projects $104 million for 2026 to 27 and $113.5 million for 2027 to 28. Those numbers create space. That space also gets claimed fast.
Smart teams use new room to keep their youth and buy boring depth. Fragile teams use new room to pay off the past. Buyout ghosts keep taking bites. Anchor deals keep blocking exits. The NHL cap space tracker crowd calls it “flexibility.” Fans call it “why we can’t fix anything.”
Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026 lives in that exact gap.
How a contract becomes a roster problem
Bad deals do not always belong to bad players. A painful deal does one thing consistently: it removes options at the worst time.
Three pressure points decide this list.
Cap share comes first. A $2 million underperformer annoys you. An $8 million underperformer runs your summer.
Rigidity comes next. A no move clause can freeze a front office. Signing bonus structure can scare off buyers.
Exit cost finishes the job. A buyout calculator might offer relief today, then bill you for years.
This ranking focuses on opportunity cost. Those dollars could extend a young star, land a deadline defenseman. Those dollars could protect a goalie’s workload with a real backup.
That is why Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026 is less about blame and more about scarcity.
The list starts here
The entries below group into three pain types.
Buyout ghosts: the player leaves, the cap hit stays.
Paper deals: the player does not play, the contract still shapes strategy.
Active anchors: the player dresses, the number still blocks the future.
Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026 counts backward from 10 to 1.
The 10 worst NHL contracts still on the books in 2026
10. Jack Campbell, EDMONTON
The Jack Campbell era in Edmonton did not end with a dramatic moment. The Oilers ended it with a buyout check. The cap department kept the receipt.
Per ESPN’s buyout breakdown, Edmonton carries $2.3 million in dead cap for Campbell in 2025 to 26. The charge then rises to $2.6 million in 2026 to 27. Smaller hits follow after that. Those numbers look modest on a cap sheet. The damage shows up in the margins.
A contender rarely loses because it lacks stars. A contender loses when it cannot solve small problems quickly. A $2.6 million ghost can be the veteran depth defenseman you trust on the road. A $2.6 million ghost can also be the backup goalie who steals a Tuesday in March.
Campbell’s buyout now hangs over every long term goalie deal like a warning sign.
9. Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, MINNESOTA
Minnesota paid for a reset. The Wild also paid for years after it.
The Parise and Suter buyouts once spiked into headline numbers. The long tail hurts in a quieter way. Per the buyout terms reported when the moves happened, Minnesota carries about $833,333 per player during the later tail years beginning in 2025 to 26.
Sub million dead cap does not sink a franchise by itself. The problem is rhythm. That money never turns into a real roster piece. A team chasing the postseason needs depth as insurance. A team carrying dead cap often buys minimum contracts instead.
Fans in St. Paul stopped arguing about the players. The arguments shifted to process. The cap hit outlived the conversation.
8. Matt Duchene, NASHVILLE
Nashville chased offense and paid for the chase twice. First came the signing. Next came the buyout. Then came the peak penalty.
Cap reporting around the Duchene buyout shows a brutal spike: $6.56 million in dead cap during 2025 to 26. The tail then drops to about $1.56 million for several seasons after.
That peak matters because it lands during the cap’s growth era. A rising ceiling should let teams add. A $6.56 million crater forces triage. A coach asks for help at the deadline. The front office shops for bargains instead of answers.
Duchene’s buyout became a lesson in how “flexibility” often means “paying to get out.”
7. Oliver Ekman Larsson, VANCOUVER
Vancouver bought out Oliver Ekman Larsson and felt instant relief. The calendar turned. The cost doubled back.
Coverage of the OEL buyout math highlighted the deferred spike: $4,766,667 in dead cap for 2025 to 26. The same figure hits again in 2026 to 27. That number sits in the danger zone. It is big enough to matter. It is small enough to feel insultingly useless.
A team can do real roster construction with $4.77 million. That money can buy a second pair defenseman in the right market. That money can bridge a young forward before the big extension.
In Vancouver, that money buys nothing. The bill belongs to yesterday.
The OEL era shifted from “necessary evil” to running joke. The cap hit turned the joke into a tax.
6. Marc Edouard Vlasic, SAN JOSE
San Jose did not treat Vlasic like a normal player. The franchise built its best years around him. The cap still forced a goodbye.
Buyout reporting pegged Vlasic’s post buyout hit around $4.67 million in 2025 to 26. The charge then drops to roughly $1.17 million in 2026 to 27. A rebuilding club can absorb pain. That pain still steals leverage.
Rebuilders often weaponize cap space. They take on contracts for picks. Dead cap reduces that ability. Dead cap also sends an unkind message: even franchise pillars can become line items.
Vlasic’s legacy stays complicated. His contract’s legacy stays simple. Aging curves arrive quietly. The cap makes them loud.
5. Ryan Ellis, SAN JOSE
Ryan Ellis represents the sport’s coldest reality. A player stops playing. The contract keeps traveling.
Ellis has not played since 2021. The cap hit still counts. In this 2026 lens, his deal functions like a paper asset. A rebuilding team can use that number to meet spending requirements. A selling team can use that trade to clear its books.
The cultural fallout matters. Fans hate accounting hockey. They also know it exists. Every time an LTIR contract moves, the league reminds people that cap management can resemble logistics more than competition.
This is not the worst deal because of the player. It lands here because it shows how the system can detach money from hockey.
4. Carey Price, SAN JOSE
Carey Price’s name still carries weight in Montreal. His cap hit can carry weight in another city too.
In public contract databases, Price’s contract shows a $10.5 million cap hit in its final season. The story here is not performance. The story is function. A bottom team can absorb the hit for structure. A cap floor can turn an icon into a tool.
This 2026 Simulation treats Price’s deal as a reminder. The cap is not sentimental. It is not moral. The cap just counts.
A franchise goalie once symbolized a building. Now a franchise goalie contract can symbolize a budget strategy.
3. Pierre Luc Dubois, WASHINGTON
Pierre Luc Dubois sits in the active anchor tier because the opportunity cost lands fast. The cap hit stays fixed. The roster needs keep changing.
Public contract trackers list Dubois at $8.5 million per season through the early 2030s. That number demands top line impact. The league’s center market makes that number common. The margin for error still shrinks.
Opportunity cost tells the harsh story in Washington. A cap anchor does not only block free agents. A cap anchor can also threaten extensions.
Think about the internal clock. A team needs to plan for a young core’s second contracts. Martin Fehervary already established himself as a serious piece. Connor McMichael’s next deal can rise quickly with production. Dylan Strome’s value also shapes the center budget. Add a heavy $8.5 million commitment and the math tightens.
A front office can survive one expensive bet. Two expensive bets can squeeze out the middle class that wins playoff series.
2. Seth Jones, CHICAGO and FLORIDA
This entry carries a bright label.
The cap mechanics described below run as a 2026 Simulation scenario designed to explain retained salary limits and long term consequences. The underlying contract itself is real and publicly listed. The specific trade path is modeled for illustration.
Seth Jones carries a $9.5 million cap hit through the end of the decade, per cap databases and PuckPedia listings. The number screams “top pair.” The number also screams “hard to move.”
In this simulated deadline shocker, Chicago ships Jones to Florida and retains $2.5 million per season. Florida takes the player at $7.0 million. Chicago takes assets and keeps a retained salary scar on its books.
Here is the retained salary lie. Fans see a discount and assume the problem disappeared. The seller still pays. The seller also burns a scarce retention slot. That slot matters later when another contract needs help out the door.
Florida’s opportunity cost shows up quickly. A contender needs to extend young contributors before they get expensive. Anton Lundell’s next contract can climb. Carter Verhaeghe’s deal already sets a bar for value. Mackie Samoskevich represents internal depth that becomes crucial when cap hits stay heavy.
Chicago’s opportunity cost looks different. A rebuilding club can afford retained salary. A rebuilding club still needs the retained money to turn into future core pieces. Picks matter only if development hits.
That is the true scoreboard. Florida wins today if Jones drives playoff minutes. Chicago wins tomorrow if the assets turn into real players.
1. Jonathan Huberdeau, CALGARY
Jonathan Huberdeau sits at the top because the trap feels complete. The cap hit is huge. The term runs long. The protection complicates exits.
Contract databases list Huberdeau at $10.5 million against the cap through 2030 to 31. The cap share shrinks as the ceiling rises. The raw number still dominates choices.
Opportunity cost turns this into a franchise story. Calgary’s young talent pipeline needs room to get paid. Dustin Wolf’s extension will matter if he holds the crease. Connor Zary’s next deal can rise with role and points. Matt Coronato needs runway and then needs a number that matches growth.
A $10.5 million anchor forces cheap wins. The club must hit on draft value. The club must find bargain depth. A contender can survive that for a season. A franchise struggles when it must live there for years.
That is why Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026 ends here. Huberdeau’s deal does not just disappoint. The deal narrows the menu.
Sidebar: Edmonton’s buyout ghost versus projected 2026 cap space
Edmonton offers the cleanest example of small dead cap turning into real roster pain.
Public multi year cap projections show the Oilers carrying meaningful space on paper entering 2026 to 27. The catch sits in what the space must pay for first. Evan Bouchard’s next contract will not be a bargain if he stays a top pairing driver. New deals for depth also pile up fast when a team chases a Cup.
Campbell’s $2.6 million dead cap in 2026 to 27 matters because it consumes space without adding a player. That charge can equal a reliable bottom six winger. That charge can equal a veteran third defenseman. The money is gone before the shopping starts.
A quick comparison keeps the scale honest:
| Buyout ghost | Team | Peak season in this cycle | Peak dead cap hit |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jack Campbell | Oilers | 2026 to 27 | $2.6 million |
| Oliver Ekman Larsson | Canucks | 2025 to 26 and 2026 to 27 | $4,766,667 |
| Matt Duchene | Predators | 2025 to 26 | $6.56 million |
| Marc Edouard Vlasic | Sharks | 2025 to 26 | about $4.67 million |
That table explains why “cap growth” does not always feel like growth. Dead cap steals the first bite.
The retained salary lie with real 2024 rules versus this 2026 forecast
Retained salary rules already limit creativity under the current framework that shaped the 2024 era.
Teams can retain up to 50 percent of a player’s salary and cap hit in a trade. Clubs also face portfolio limits. Each team can carry only three retained salary contracts at a time. Total retained salary exposure also cannot exceed 15 percent of the cap upper limit.
Those limits are real world constraints. They are not simulation flavor.
This 2026 Forecast layers in one additional tightening that cap reporting and rule explainers have discussed: a timing restriction designed to prevent rapid “retention chains” around deadline week. In this model, a second retention on the same contract cannot occur within 75 regular season days of the first retention event. The detail matters less than the effect. Deadline week loses one of its favorite tricks. Creativity moves earlier on the calendar.
Whenever this article discusses a three team retention chain, it treats the mechanics as real and the timing limit as forecasted.
Cheat Sheet: Three team retention, explained like you are watching between whistles
Three team retention sounds complicated. The rules are simple when you break them down.
What “retained salary” means
One team agrees to pay part of a player’s cap hit after trading him. The buyer gets a cheaper cap number. The seller keeps a dead charge.
Rule 1: A team can retain up to 50 percent
Chicago can keep half the cap hit. That is the ceiling.
Rule 2: Only two teams can retain on one contract
That is why “three team trades” top out the way they do. Team A retains. B retains after acquiring. Team C ends up with the final reduced cap hit.
Rule 3: The maximum practical discount hits 75 percent
Team A retains 50 percent. Team B can retain 50 percent of what remains. Team C pays 25 percent of the original number. That is the deepest cut possible.
Rule 4: Retention slots are scarce
Each franchise can carry only three retained salary contracts at once. A retention slot is not just money. It is a roster management resource.
Rule 5: Total retained money has a cap
A club cannot retain more than 15 percent of the cap upper limit in total. Big retentions block future retentions.
Forecast note for 2026
This simulation assumes a timing clamp that slows down rapid retention stacking. The intent is to stop last second cap magic. The result pushes complex trade engineering earlier in the year.
If you remember one line, remember this: retained salary does not delete a problem. It moves the problem and charges interest.
Why these active anchors feel worse in 2026
Buyout ghosts irritate fans. Active anchors break plans.
The urgency comes from timing. Young cores get expensive at the same time veterans get slower. A team that overpays a veteran often underpays its own future.
Calgary cannot treat Huberdeau’s number as background noise when Wolf and Zary approach real money. Washington cannot treat Dubois as “fine” when its next wave needs raises. Florida cannot treat a discounted Jones as free value when its internal depth gets priced out.
That is the heart of Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026. The cap hit does not only buy a player. The cap hit also buys what you cannot do.
The lingering question that stays after the cap jump
Cap growth will change headlines. Cap growth will not change the feeling of watching a front office explain why it cannot fix something obvious.
Retention rules already cap the magic. This forecast tightens the calendar too. LTIR relief may also face more guardrails as the league keeps arguing about competitive balance. None of that stops general managers from betting on hope.
Hope sells in July. The invoice arrives in January.
Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026 turns that invoice into a list because fans deserve honesty. The sport loves loyalty. The cap loves cold math. When the ceiling rises again, which teams will spend the new room on real depth, and which teams will spend it paying off ghosts from summers they cannot undo?
Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026 will change names next season. The mechanism will stay the same.
Read More: NHL Cap Floor Explained: How Low Spending Teams Hit the Minimum
FAQs
Q1: What does “Worst NHL Contracts Still on the Books in 2026” mean?
A: It ranks deals that eat cap space without matching value. In this 2026 simulation, those contracts block depth signings and young-player extensions.
Q2: Are the 2026 rules in the story real NHL rules?
A: Some are real retained-salary limits today. The story also labels forecasted constraints as simulation to avoid confusion.
Q3: Why do buyouts still hurt when the cap keeps rising?
A: Dead cap takes space before a team adds real players. Even a few million can erase the backup goalie or depth defender you need.
Q4: What is a “three-team retention” trade in simple terms?
A: One team keeps part of the cap hit, a second team can keep part again, and the final team gets the player at a lower cap number.
Q5: Which contracts drive the biggest “opportunity cost” in the article?
A: The active anchors do. Big, long-term cap hits can force teams to choose between keeping young stars and plugging roster holes.
I bounce between stadium seats and window seats, chasing games and new places. Sports fuel my heart, travel clears my head, and every trip ends with a story worth sharing.
