Top 3 potential busts from the 2019 free agency period.

The National Hockey League free agency period can be an extremely exciting time to be a hockey fan, but it is also the time of year when NHL general managers tend to make their most catastrophic blunders. 

Don't believe me? Well let's just rewind the clock back a few years to the summer of 2016 and take a quick look at some of the more questionable deals that were handed out during that period. How many Vancouver Canucks' fans do you think are still happy about the fact that veteran forward Loui Eriksson will remain one of the organizations top earners for several more seasons to come? We could turn around and ask the same question to Bruins fans regarding the long term deal of veteran forward David Backes, and we could absolutely do the same for the Edmonton Oilers fan base when it comes to another veteran forward in the form of Milan Lucic.

This is all to say that often times the big deals that are handed out over the summer can quickly turn ugly, and even though it may not happy in the first, second, or third year of a contract, the long term deals can get bad long before they get close. Although it can be very difficult to predict at the time which players are going to fall off before their deals run out, I'm going to list the 3 contracts I feel are the most likely to turn bad before they run out.

#3 Semyon Varlamov.

The contract the New York Islanders dished out to veteran goaltender Semyon Varlamov at 31 years of age boggled the mind of many hockey pundits. Varlamov is coming off a decent year in which he posted a 2.87 goals against average and a .909 save percentage over 49 games with the Avalanche, but he certainly was no Robin Lehner last season. The Islanders decision to give Varlamov a 4 year term at $5 million per season, when Lehner got the same money to sign with the Blackhawks on just a 1 year deal, is perplexing and could very well come back to bite them. Not only are Varlamov's health concerns a potential risk factor but he will inevitably be compared with Lehner in Chicago.

#2 Brandon Tanev

Pittsburgh Penguins general manager Jim Rutherford owes a big thank you to the man in our #1 spot because this deal blew a lot of people away. Much like the Varlamov deal no one saw this coming, especially not on an absurd 6 year term like the one the Penguins handed out to Brandon Tanev. Tanev has never played in a full 82 game NHL season and in fact prior to appearing in 80 games for the Jets in 2018 - 2019 he had only every played 61 games in a full season. 14 goals and 15 assists for a total of 29 points, all of which were career highs, should not buy you a 6 year term at $3.5 million per season., but Jim Rutherford believed it did. Tanev will be 33 by the time this deal has run it's course and it is very hard to see how this one works out for the Penguins.

#1 Sergei Bobrovsky.

A gigantic 7 year deal that has the potential to completely turn around the fortunes o the Florida Panthers franchise, but one that could also become a major albatross in a few short years. Bobrovsky, who is already 30 and will be 31 by the time the first season of this deal is played, is a talented goaltender to be sure but it would be unfair to suggest that he has been consistent throughout his entire NHL career. The fact that he has a full no movement clause through the first 5 years of this deal means the Panthers are effectively locked in, and the term means that Bobrovsky would be 38 years old by the time he would be playing out the final year of this contract.

Of all the names on this list I believe Bobrovsky has the best chance of making me eat crow for my selections, but I also believe that his deal could prove to be by far the most catastrophic contract of the 2019 free agent period.