Pls vote

Dipietro shouldn't count since it was like 10 years before all the others.

Neal signing felt the most out of place out of these. Eriksson just had 30 goals and 60 points, Skinner just had 40 goals and Lucic was brought in to fill a power forward role and even looked good for a whole season.

James Neal was a secondary contributor to a surprising Knights team. He put up a similar amount of points from his last season, where his former team decided to leave him exposed in the expansion draft because Calle Järnkrok was just too valuable. I don't think that kind of player should get nearly 6 million over 5 years in the declining years of his career.

I hit the wrong button. Gotta be Skinner superstar $$ for subpar play.

True, I added him to the poll because if he wasn't bought out the contract still would've been going.

Has to be Jeff Skinner

Should be a vote between all the similar bad forward signings of 2016:
Lucic
Okposo
Ladd
Nielsen
Backes
Eriksson

Ok!

I know people hate the Lucic contract with good reason, but he's still a valuable player. Just not at $6M AAV. He's worth half. Maybe 1/3. The other names are all massive busts. Skinner is by far the worst b/c there's no way out for BUF. He's not only not worth the cap hit, he's probably a negative influence on the young players. He represents the idea that if you work really hard and play great during a contract season you can cash in and then do nothing. Very poor message. And the NMC just adds insult to injury lol.

I don't really blame Okposo for cashing in when he was pending UFA. He played with JT and his offensive numbers were inflated. He was never that good offensively to begin with. GM should've known better. Foolish.

Eriksson: Injury issues caught him quick. looking at the 5 years prior to this deal 71 in 82, 29 in 48(lockout yr), 37 in 61 (concussion year didnt look right when he came back), 47 in 81 (seemed concussion spilled over because he simply didnt look the same), 63 in 82 finally looked like he recovered from the concussion issues. Signs the contract and then immediate regression. I dont recall if he got another concussion or not in vancouver but 2 of the 3 years prior he had looked rough.

LOOCH: I am shocked seeing these but he had a very unrealistic shot percentage for a powerforward. from age 20-28 he had one season below 12.5% shooting percentage and that was the lockout year where he had 8.9%. But look at these percentages... 17.5%, 12.5%, 17.3%, 17.4%, 8.9%, 15.7%, 12.8%, 16.1%, 13.1% these are equal to or better than david pastrnaks %'s right now... the 16.1% was in lak in his contract year he still posted 50 in 82 with edmonton the year after and hes still on a 200+ hit pace however his ice time dropped from 17m to 13m. his shot percentage went from double digits to 6.8, 8.1, 9.6, and 12.9 this year but with a small shot selection. Who knows what the real factor is for these, whether its a different role, whether its just a luck thing, or a shot decline. who knows but i was blown away when i saw the first roughly 8 years of his career. his rookie year he only had 9.1 too

Neal: one of those complimentary style players you look at his career and you see he had a great time in pittsburgh. He went from playing with crosby and malkin to johansen major drop off in talent there. he went to vegas pretty much matched his age 29 season in nashville low point player. Calgary signed him to be a player he wasnt. and then 32/33 even playing with nuge, or drai, or mcdavid hes just not fast enough or skilled enough anymore to be a major factor on the ice.

Skinner: Probably the most "skilled" of the bunch at time of signing, also the youngest. His issue has ALWAYS been effort. If the nhl ever needed non guaranteed deals it would be for skinner. He also has been ALL over the place in terms of shooting percentages... in his best years: 14.4%, 12% 10.9% 13.2% 14.9% but then in his worst years: 6% 7.7% 7.7% 8.2% I dont know what he had over buffalo gm/owners but damn. he didnt warrant that deal. not even close to it.