19 Good Reasons To Avoid Signing Free Agents

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2012

Mar 10, 2013; Sunrise, FL, USA; Florida Panthers defenseman

Filip Kuba

(17) is penalized for boarding on Montreal Canadiens center

David Desharnais

(51) in the second period at the BB

1.  Jason Garrison – With one good year under his belt in Florida, the Canucks signed Garrison to a 6 year, $27M deal.  It wasn’t the worst contract ever signed, but the Canucks have put themselves in a deep cap hole and $4.6M to a one year wonder didn’t help that situation.

2. Filip Kuba – Kuba’s track record of performing well in contract years continued, and Florida gave him the security of a 2 year deal, with a $4M average salary.  He is in the process of being bought out after just one horrible year.

3. Jiri Hudler – The Flames gambled on the talented yet underachieving winger, thinking that with prime minutes they could get more out of Hudler.  Well, 4 years and $16M is what they threw at him, and he still responded with a PPG average of just over .65.

The word is still out on Parise and Suter in Minnesota.  Big contracts but at least Suter was a Norris nominee.