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

Buffalo Sabres – Kyle Okposo

Contract: $6 million cap hit over four years; $8 million signing bonuses; modified NTC in each of the last four seasons

The summer of 2016 saw a ton of NHL free agents sign long-term deals. Very few of them have worked out. The Buffalo Sabres, needing some scoring, hoped that Kyle Okposo could still be a good player away from John Tavares. That hasn’t been the case.

His first season actually went fairly well – Okposo had 45 points in 65 games. Then he had 44 points in 76 games during the 2017-18 season. Okposo’s decline got ugly in 2018-19, as he finished the year with just 29 points in 78 games, the lowest he’s had in any season with at least 50 games played.

Injuries have severely affected Okposo’s game. At one point, he had to be admitted to the hospital due to concussion symptoms. Okposo was named to the All-Star team just months before that, so it’s not a stretch to say a concussion probably sent his career into its current decline.

Currently, he’s being paid like a second-line forward. Okposo is not producing like one, nor is he even playing the minutes of one. His playing time got cut from over 17 minutes per game to just over 13 per game in the span of one season.