NHL Contracts: Each team’s worst deal

Winnipeg Jets: Bryan Little

Contract: Six years left, $5.921 cap hit, $31.75 million total salary remaining, no-movement clause for the first two seasons, modified no-trade clause (14-team no-trade list) for the last five.

Here’s another team who didn’t really have many options. Mark Scheifele’s long-term deal is highway robbery. Nikolaj Ehlers is quickly rising as a young star and should prove to be a huge bargain. Remarkably, defenseman Dustin Byfuglien has avoided regression, so his deal is good for now.

This leaves Bryan Little as the odd man out. Back in September of 2017, the Winnipeg Jets signed him to a six-year extension. Neither side wanted to go through free agency, so they agreed to a deal that would keep him in Winnipeg long-term.

Little has been pretty darn consistent, posting at least 40 points in his last seven full seasons (excluding the 2012-13 lockout-shortened season). And that’s while not always staying healthy. There’s a lot of value in being able to pencil someone in for at least 40 points a year.

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Long-term, there are some concerns about Little. First of all, he has struggled to stay on the ice as of late. Little has only played in 82 games in a season twice (2013-14 and 2017-18). In 2015-16 and 2016-17, he combined to play in merely 116 games. Little’s health is going to determine how his deal is viewed long-term. But by default, he has the worst contract on the Jets right now.

If the worst contract on your team belongs to someone who is a consistently productive player, that’s a pretty good sign your team is in good shape.