NHL Contracts: Each team’s worst deal

Colorado Avalanche: Carl Soderberg

Contract: Two years remaining, $4.75 million cap hit, $9 million total salary remaining, 10-team no-trade list.

The Colorado Avalanche are a lot like the Coyotes. They don’t really have many guys locked in long-term. The Avalanche have 12 players under contract after next season and just six after 2019-20. This leaves a very small number of players who are eligible for having the worst contract.

37 points in 77 games is far from horrible for someone making $4.75 million.

Most of the people who are signed long-term have extremely reasonable deals (or even bargain ones like Nathan MacKinnon). Carl Soderberg isn’t worth $4.75 million anymore, so he gets the nod for having the worst contract on the Avalanche.

He’s a third line forward at best for Colorado. That said, Soderberg at least has some hint of value remaining. He’s a quality penalty killer and is still a pretty decent skater. And 37 points in 77 games is far from horrible for someone making $4.75 million. Is it ideal? Probably not. But is it fine when you consider the other unbearably bad deals on this list? Sure.

The Avalanche are in pretty darn good shape. Of course, this could change if they sign guys to awful deals. But so far, general manager Joe Sakic has been pretty good at keeping guys at a reasonable price. He’ll certainly be tested in the next two years, however.