NHL Contracts: Each team’s worst deal

Columbus Blue Jackets: Brandon Dubinsky

Contract: Three years remaining, $5.85 million cap hit, $17.55 million total salary remaining, no-movement clause, 10-team no-trade list.

The Columbus Blue Jackets have an interesting roster. Only 13 of their players are signed to deals past the 2018-19 season. Of those 13, 11 of them belong to players who will be under 30 years old when the season starts. Nick Foligno and Brandon Dubinsky are the other two. The latter has the worse contract of the two.

There’s a long list of players who have been able to rebound after bad seasons. Most of them are faster and quicker than Dubinsky.

Dubinsky’s numbers have been declining for a while now. He put up 50 points during the 2013-14 season. Since then, Dubinsky has yet to repeat those numbers. After putting up 17 goals and 48 points in the 2015-16 season, there was some optimism. Maybe Dubinsky could still remain a productive player.

However, that has not been the case. In 2016-17, Dubinsky put up a respectable 41 points. Last season, he had arguably the worst season of his career, posting just 16 points in 62 games while playing 15:24 per game, his lowest since the 2007-08 season.

Dubinsky is on the wrong side of 30 years old at 31. Age typically hits forwards with a more physical playing style more harshly than players who rely on speed and skill. Dubinsky’s speed has never been that great. In order to improve, he’s going to have to adapt his game.

He will have to become a faster player, which is very hard to do when you weren’t that fast to begin with. There’s a long list of players who have been able to rebound after bad seasons. Most of them are faster and quicker than Dubinsky.