NHL buyer’s remorse team: 20 players front offices may be having second thoughts about
SOURCE:The Athletic|BY:Sean McIndoe
Here are 20 players acquired over the offseason via trade and free agency who aren’t working out for their new teams.
The holidays are done, and right now there’s a good chance that you’re looking around your home and thinking: Man, I paid way too much for stuff I didn’t really need.
If so, welcome to life as an NHL general manager.
In most of the front offices around the league, there’s probably been a similar feeling, one that’s been growing as the season went on. It’s the classic buyer’s remorse, where a move that seemed to make sense in the summer now feels like a mistake.
Today, we’re going to build out our all-buyer’s remorse team, based on players who were acquired over the offseason via trade and free agency and aren’t working out for their new teams. We’ll do 12 forwards, six defensemen and two goalies, with a limit of three players per team so that it’s not all your favorite team fair.
(As a side note, tradition tells us that most of the players I choose for this piece will immediately heat up and play like MVP candidates for the rest of the year. If this happens, you are not allowed to send me “this aged poorly” jabs. Instead, you have to thank me for personally motivating the player to turn things around. These are the rules and you’ve legally agreed to them by reading this article.)
Great teams are built from the net out. But so are regrettable ones, so we’ll start there.
Goalies
I’ll be honest, it’s weirdly difficult to find goaltending candidates for this year’s team. We didn’t see a ton of goalies moving over the summer, and a few of the ones who did —such as Dan Vladar, Alex Lyon and Dave Rittich — have been success stories. By process of elimination, we’re almost forced to choose two guys who were traded for each other.
John Gibson, Red Wings
He’s been fine. Not good enough to vindicate all the “get him away from the Ducks defense” voices, but also not bad enough to call the trade a mistake. His save percentage is nearly 20 points lower than it was in last year’s mini-comeback season, so it’s fair to say that Steve Yzerman was hoping for more. Still, things are clicking in Detroit, so I’m guessing its fans aren’t asking for a do-over quite yet.
Petr Mrazek, Ducks
He’s been hurt and not very effective when he has played. We’ve seen him twice in December, and one of those was in mop-up duty in a game the Ducks lost 8-3. Still, he was more of a veteran cap balancer in the Gibson trade than anything else, and as the third option in Anaheim, he’s unlikely to make or break their season either way.
Honorable mention: Alexandar Georgiev didn’t even make it into an NHL game for the Sabres before heading to the KHL. Waiver pickup Cayden Primeau got shelled in Toronto before heading back to Carolina. And while Alex Nedeljkovic’s goaltending numbers have been decent in San Jose, his goal-scoring rate has dropped by an unacceptable 100 percent.
Defense
We’re always told that great defensemen are never available. That’s obviously nonsense, as would remind us. But they’re probably harder to find on the open market than any other position, which in theory leads to more regret.
The Kings’ two big offseason additions to the blue line were widely panned over the summer, and while neither has been an outright bust, they also haven’t done much to prove the critics wrong. They’re playing third-pair minutes and are struggling to break even in those matchups. It’s hard to call that a win, especially with the departed Vladislav Gavrikov playing well for the Rangers. In fairness, though, Ceci and Dumoulin have at least combined for (checks notes) one goal.
Nicolas Hague, Predators
Another one from the offseason “I told you so” pile, the Predators took Hague off the Knights’ hands and gave him a $22 million extension in a deal that raised eyebrows. In exchange, they got a preseason injury that delayed his debut, followed by about what you’d expect: Just under 20 minutes a night of slightly below-water results
Logan Mailloux, Blues
The trade that sent Mailloux to the Blues for Zack Bolduc featured two players who were young enough that you knew you couldn’t declare winners and losers after just a couple of months. But it’s been three months now, so: The Blues lost. Bolduc has been solid in Montreal, while Mailloux has struggled to show he’s ready for full-time NHL duty in St. Louis. He’s been better since his November “reset” in the AHL, but ideally, you don’t want to be sporting the league’s worst plus/minus rating based on 13 minutes a night.
Matt Dumba, Penguins
Dumba has become a quintessential journeyman in recent years, with the Penguins representing his fifth team since 2023. The Penguins got a second-round pick to take the last year of his contract off the Stars’ hands, so maybe you don’t worry too much about the lack of production. You’d like to think you still had an NHLer, though, and Dumba was waived down to the minors a few weeks ago.
Travis Hamonic, Red Wings
I’ll admit that I’d completely forgotten about this signing, which was cheap and meant for depth and not really a problem. Still, Hamonic has an expected goals south of 40 percent and an actual goals south of 25 percent, so you have to admire his commitment to the bit.
Honorable mention: I’m still not sure I’m completely on board with Carolina going so hard after K’Andre Miller, but he’s been a solid addition so far. The Sharks added a bunch of veterans such as John Klingberg, Dmitry Orlov and even Nick Leddy, but they’ve all been mostly fine.
Forwards
It’s not often we get to start this section with a slam dunk Hall of Famer.
Jonathan Toews, Jets
OK, remorse feels like the wrong word here. We’re all glad to see Toews back in action after two full seasons out of the league. And to have the comeback happen for his hometown team, even better. But the reality is that Toews hasn’t been good in Winnipeg. That doesn’t mean it can’t be a feel-good story, but it’s probably fair to say that the Jets needed more than three goals here, especially once those games-played bonuses start kicking in.
JJ Peterka, Mammoth
He’s on pace for a run at his first 30-goal season, so the Mammoth are probably still OK with taking this swing. But his points-per-game total has dropped from last year’s peak in Buffalo, and he’s only barely ahead of Josh Doan, one of the youngsters he was traded for, in points. This might still end up being remembered as a win-win trade, but Sabres fans might be thanking Kevyn Adams for pulling it off.
Nikolaj Ehlers, Hurricanes
So far, the Hurricanes aren’t exactly reaping the rewards of his $51 million deal. Ehlers has just eight goals on the year, and is on pace to barely clear 50 points. That’s well off his pace from last year, despite an uptick in ice time. This is a weird one because one look at the Jets this year tells you how much they miss Ehlers, which makes him look like an underrated difference-maker. His numbers so far in Carolina, not as much.
Evander Kane, Canucks
On some level, bringing in a hometown veteran in the twilight of his career makes a certain amount of sense, even if the $5.1 million cap hit was always going to represent a gamble. Unfortunately, Kane hasn’t been worth the price, with just six goals on the season. But the bigger problem is that the plan has clearly changed in Vancouver, where the focus has shifted to the future. Kane is a pending UFA, so if they can flip him for decent assets between now and March, maybe it’s all washes out in the end. That might be easier said than done, though.
Jonathan Drouin, Islanders
There haven’t been too many disappointments for Patrick Roy’s surprise playoff contender, but Drouin’s three goals have to qualify. He’s gone from shooting 19.6 percent last year to just 6.3 percent this season, so short-term variance is obviously a big factor. But you generally don’t want your total goals and total suspensions to be this close halfway through a season.
Nicolas Roy, Maple Leafs
Matias Maccelli, Maple Leafs
Dakota Joshua, Maple Leafs
We’ll group these three, because fairly or unfairly, they can be viewed as the Leafs’ attempt to spread Mitch Marner’s cap hit into a deeper roster while recreating at least part of the departed star in the aggregate. The three forwards account for a total cap hit of almost $9.7 million while accumulating a total of 37 points. Roy and the now-injured Joshua at least bring some defensive upside, but it’s fair to say that Brad Treliving’s offseason spending hasn’t exactly yielded any home run swings.
(In case you’re wondering, Marner hasn’t exactly been lights out in Vegas, with his production down across the board. But he’s been good enough that he wasn’t a contender for this list.)
Andrew Mangiapane, Oilers
There’s something weird about how the Oilers keep signing talented offensive players to cheap deals that seem like can’t-miss wins, only to see them fail to really click with any of the existing offensive firepower. Last year, it was Jeff Skinner and Viktor Arvidsson. This year’s it’s Mangiapane, following an iffy year in Washington with an even less productive one in Edmonton — he has just five goals and 11 points through the first half.
Evgenii Dadonov, Devils
Yeah, apparently he’s on the Devils now. You could be forgiven for missing that, as he’s only been healthy enough to play five games, with one injury costing him six weeks early and a more recent one landing him back on the IR. Those five games, and the zero points he’s scored in them, aren’t the ones the Devils had in mind when they signed him. But the contract is cheap and contains performance bonuses, so they can afford a little bit more patience.
Gustav Nyquist, Jets
The idea here was that he’d at least replace a chunk of Ehlers’ production. Goals aren’t the only way to evaluate a forward, which is good news for Nyquist, because right now he’s tied with you. He’s only signed for this year, so while the cap hit is a little hefty given his numbers, they may be able to flip him at the deadline if they end up selling … which is a path we didn’t think they’d have to contemplate, but here we are.
Lars Eller, Senators
This is another one you probably forgot about if you haven’t been paying close attention to the Senators. Ottawa fans were hoping to land a top-six difference-maker, but had to settle for Eller on a cheaper deal. So far, he’s chipped in just two goals and six points.
Honorable mention: Nobody seemed to like the Tanner Jeannot signing in Boston when it happened, but he’s been fine. Mason Marchment wasn’t great in Seattle, but they already found a new home for him. Jeff Skinner has five goals in San Jose, and it’s probably time to close the book on him being a top-six scoring threat.