Buffalo Sabres’ 5 Worst Contracts of the Salary Cap Era

Now more than ever, management of NHL teams are trying to find value. Contracts are escalating all the time. Teams can ill-afford to swing and miss on a substantial acquisition, lest it hamstring their efforts for years to come.

Until last season, the Buffalo Sabres had become synonymous with failure. Unfortunately for them, part of those failures includes signing players to long-term, big value contracts that almost instantly bit them in the behind.

While the Sabres now have several value-driven contracts (and one of the league’s best players), it hasn’t always been that way. Unfortunately for the Sabres, there are more than a few examples of how things went wrong to go around.

Honorable Mention

Before we get into the five worst contracts the Sabres have signed in the salary cap era, it’s time to talk about those who were bad but not so bad that they made a list. For instance, Cody Hodgson’s 6-year, $25.5 million contract. Some of it was on him but he notoriously dealt with injuries and ultimately had to retire because of Malignant Hyperthermia.

Tyler Ennis and Thomas Vanek both produced at least to some degree even if they didn’t live up to their respective deals (5 years, $23 million for Ennis, 7 years, $50 million for Vanek). Maxim Afinogenov cashed in on a big 2005-06 season ultimately to under deliver on his 3-year, $10 million deal.

5.) Jeff Skinner – 8 Years, $72 Million (2019)

When Skinner signed his deal with the Sabres in 2018, it at least made sense: a 26-year-old with a pair of 30-goal seasons to his name. And the truth of the matter is that Skinner was reasonably good in Buffalo, with seasons of 40, 33, and 35 goals.

Skinner makes it here for two reasons. First: he was as one-dimensional as it gets. It was so bad that it made him almost unusable in the second and third seasons of his contract under Ralph Krueger. The second is that he became a healthy scratch by the end of his tenure and had to be bought out. The Sabres are in just the third year of that buyout, shelling out $6.44 million against the cap to not have him on the roster.

The simple fact of the matter is that $9 million per season is a steep price to pay for a guy who really could only score and didn’t do that consistently. The buyout, spread over six seasons, makes that even tougher to swallow.

4.) Matt Moulson – 5 Years, $25 Million (2014)

Moulson had a tumultuous, if productive, 2013-14 season that saw him start with the New York Islanders, move to the Sabres, and then get dealt to the Minnesota Wild. He returned to Buffalo in the summer, a 5-year, $25 million contract in hand.

Unfortunately for the Sabres, they bought high. Moulson immediately took a step back, scoring just 13 goals and 41 points just three seasons removed from scoring 36 goals. It would be a precipitous downfall from there. Moulson had an ugly 2015-16, scoring just eight times and picking up 21 points in 81 games.

In five years with the Sabres, Moulson accounted for just 46 goals and 123 points in 297 games while carrying around one of the worst cap hits in the league. It would also mark the end of his NHL career as well.

3.) Christian Ehrhoff – 10 Years, $40 Million (2011)

The summer of 2011 was meant to be a big one for the Sabres and it turned out to be just that – for all the wrong reasons. The team was still competitive then, finishing tied for second in the then-Northeast Division but ultimately bowing out in the first round of the playoffs.

They made two big splashes that season, one of which involved signing then-28-year-old Ehrhoff. He had been a solid top-four defenseman for the San Jose Sharks and Vancouver Canucks, coming off a 50-point season. He was signed to an incredible 10-year deal, meant to be a long-time fixture in Buffalo.

Instead, he was okay but nowhere near the player he was expected to be. His offense fell off drastically, and he was no better defensively. Another major issue had to do with the league’s new “cap recapture penalty” that would have hurt the Sabres if Ehrhoff retired early. Ehrhoff lasted all of three seasons in Buffalo before he was bought out, seeing the team pay him $857,143 every year through 2027.

2.) Kyle Okposo – 7 Years, $42 Million (2016)

Okposo was coming off one of his best seasons with the Islanders, a 22-goal, 64-point effort leading into becoming an unrestricted free agent in the offseason. The Sabres snapped him up with a 7-year, $42 million contract and almost instantly regretted it.

Okposo started with a 19-goal, 45-point effort in 65 games and steadily declined from there. The Sabres hoped they were getting a 25-goal, 65-point power forward to play in their top-six. Instead, they got a depreciating asset that scored just 11 times over 87 games from 2019-2021.

Okposo was a solid depth piece and veteran leader over the last few seasons of his contract before being shipped off to the Florida Panthers. At a bargain price, that is looked on positively. At $6 million per season, it’s a tough pill to swallow and one that hindered the Sabres during the decade-plus playoff drought.

1.) Ville Leino – 6 Years, $27 Million (2011)

The other big splash made in the summer of 2011 was the signing of the 27-year-old Leino. Coming off a career-best season in which he scored 19 goals and 53 points for the Philadelphia Flyers, Sabres management felt like they had an excellent top-six winger to help elevate them to true contender status.

Instead, they wound up with one of the worst signings in NHL history. Leino was instantly a flop, scoring eight goals and 25 points in 71 games. Injuries and a general lack of performance limited him to just 66 more games, ending his tenure after three disastrous seasons.

Like Ehrhoff, Leino was bought out as the Sabres attempted to move on from the disastrous summer of 2011. If anything, Leino became sort of the poster child for the rapid decline of Buffalo Sabres hockey in the early days of the playoff drought.

The Sabres of Today Look Much Different

The Sabres had to go through a few ups and a lot of downs to get through their playoff drought. Part of that drought was because of the misses listed above. But now, they are in the position to potentially add elite talent and become real contenders.

The drought era – 2011-2026 – was tough on Sabres management, players, and fans alike. Let’s hope that those are tough lessons learned that will help prevent another lengthy drought from taking place in the future.