Jonathan Huberdeau’s contract does not hurt the flames – the hockey writers Calgary Flames latest news, analysis and more

At the end of July, Athletics released a list of their top 10 worst NHL contracts (from ‘Dom Luszczyszyn: NHL’s 10 worst contracts, 2025 edition: Jonathan Huberkereau, Ivan Provorov and more,’ Athletics31-7-15). On average as the first invoicing on that list was Calgary Flames Voor Jonathan Huberdeau’s contract, which was signed with an eight-year contract worth $ 10.5 million a year, starting in the 2023-24 season and has six years left over. This is not an ideal situation for the Calgary Flames, who are planning to compete earlier instead of later for the Stanley Cup, but how bad is it?

Flat Cap Math

Most years, the NHL salary limit is expected to rise with a relatively stable percentage of the year before, so that players are paid more and more over time. The specific dollar amount is rarely important for most teams (because your average and even your subsequent NHL team can afford to spend on the cap) and instead the value of a player is represented by a percentage of the salary limit. To maximize the players (who give the money) to maximize their income, they sign contracts that look expensive in advance, but whose value as a percentage of the cap decreases as time progresses.

Related: Flames’ Huberdeau is not doing well in new worst contracts ranking

Or, at least, that’s the idea. When the COVID-19 Pandemie struck in 2020, the NHL almost froze the salary cap in place and was not at all or in very small steps. This increased the pressure on teams to play much more carefully to the cap – almost all warring teams, plus many teams that are not fighting – spent on the salary limit. A bad contract in the flat PET era could bring a team from a competition to a pretender.

Take the Toronto Maple Leafs, for example. They signed the contracts of the “Core Four” – Auston Matthews, William Nylander, John Tavares and Mitch Marner – on four major contracts before the salary cap platformed, assuming that it would continue to rise. It didn’t work, and during the following seasons they had to limit themselves to extremely weak depth, slow defenders and cheap goal congregation, which resulted in almost zero playoff success. If the salary limit had risen in that period, those contracts would have become less consistent.

Sticker -Schok

Now the NHL is back in the way it was before the salary cap was flattened. After years of stagnating, the cap jumped from $ 88 million to $ 95.5 million This outside the season only rose by $ 6.5 million, total, since the 2019-2020 season. That is a leap for a year larger than the past six seasons combined-to-have made more dramatic by the fact that $ 4.5 million of that $ 6.5 million was allocated in the low season of 2024. This leaves almost every team in the competition with an enormous amount of cap space, even many teams that were tight before it started to rise again.

This can leave the competition and his fans with a kind of inverted sticker shock: for the COVID years and those who followed, the salary limit was supposed to be a certain steady number, so all contracts and analyzes were done with the assumption that the limit at a certain dollar level would be and would remain so. Perspectives had shifted to look at the salary structure of the competition in a certain way.

However, the competition is now over that structure, and our perspectives must turn to the way they were before the cap flat: dollar values and CAP percentage must be separated again. This means that contracts look rich, even if they will be reasonable for two years.

The suits of the flames (or the lack thereof)

Huberdeau’s contract will not be reasonable in two years. It will probably be unreasonable for the duration, unless he makes a big turn and goes back to the shape that almost won him a heart trophy. There is a reason why it was at the top of the “worst contracts” list.

That said, the flames, unlike the Maple Leafs, are not in a position where they are tied for cash. They have $ 15,412,500 cap space with only limited free agent Connor Zary who is still left to sign, and it is unlikely that they will be buyers at the Handelsdeadline of 2026. A team in their position could probably have concluded that contract, even with a tighter cap situation, and now the load is not rising.

Huberkereau is also not a bad player or a negative active. If the flames are willing to even be at least smart with the Dead Dop, they can even afford to wear half of his $ 10.5 million cap to send Huberdeau as a desperate competition as a Middle Sint option. Red Wings Forward Patrick Kane had a contract with an identical cap that hit his first team, the Blackhawks, two years ago exchanged him to the New York Rangers like a deadline addition. Assuming that the more likely option that the flames keep it, the contract could be moved for years to strengthen a team that must touch the salary floor.

In the meantime, Huberdeau is a perfectly manageable player and a valuable part of the flames. In many other situations, his contract would be a dead weight – but for a team that must score more than whatever and need leadership, the contract is no problem for one of their best attacking drivers and veterans.