Each NHL team’s worst contract heading into the 2019-20 season

Washington Capitals – T.J. Oshie

Contract: $5.75 million cap hit over the next six years; modified NTC (15-team no-trade list) for the next two seasons, 10-team for the remainder of the deal)

T.J. Oshie signed a huge extension back in the summer of 2017. They kept the cap hit reasonable – $5.75 million is reasonable for a top-six forward – but the term always struck me as being a bit long.

When healthy, Oshie is a darn good player. 339 forwards have played at least 100 games over the past two seasons. Oshie is 86th among them in points per game with 0.71. This puts him as a borderline top-line forward in terms of production. The issue is, Oshie can’t stay healthy.

This has a lot to do with his concussion issues, sadly. Oshie has suffered no fewer than five concussions during his career. He has missed at least 10 games in two of the past three seasons, which is a bit alarming.

Oshie helped the Capitals win the Stanley Cup, which helps justify his deal. But still, it’s hard to see this contract looking good long-term. Especially given his injury history. That said, Oshie’s deal doesn’t have an NMC and the league has proven they value guys like him. So if the Capitals need to get rid of the deal, they should have no issues doing so.

Dishonorable mention: Garnet Hathaway is a very solid fourth-liner who is one of the best penalty killers in the league. At $1.6 million, his cap hit is quite reasonable. But Hathaway got a four-year deal. You don’t give four-year deals to fourth-line forwards. For the same reason, I could see Carl Hagelin’s deal ending up looking bad if his speed leaves him.