The Calgary Flames are slowly going through a rebuild, and under Craig Conroy, things are clearly looking up, with the organization seemingly having one of the best prospect groups in the entire National Hockey League.
Unfortunately, there's some things that have held them back in recent years and potentially forced them towards their rebuild, and perhaps the biggest of all has been the monstrous extension handed out to Jonathan Huberdeau before he played a game. That's haunted Calgary since the moment Brad Treliving signed the deal, and after Dustin Wolf was revealed to have one of the best contracts in the NHL, The Athletic have named the Huberdeau one as the worst.
From Jonathan Huberdeau to a whole lot of contracts signed over the last year, my annual look at the worst contracts in the league. https://t.co/Qov0t4weSN pic.twitter.com/odSOenXZKw
— dom 📈 (@domluszczyszyn) July 23, 2026
For the next five seasons, Huberdeau will still be earning $10.5 million, but according to their model, the value of that contract is just $4.8 million per season, so while he can still be an effective player when healthy, not enough to justify anything close to his current contract. Last season was his worst as a Flame, but with off-season surgery behind him, the Flames are hopeful he can get back to the 60-point pace he was at in 2024/25 when he seemingly started to find his new role.
Ultimately, this is a deal that was never going to age well, and thus far, it's been an unmitigated disaster, and unless Huberdeau can have a bounce back to being a point-per-game player after his injury, it's going to be bad for five more years, with no other contract in the NHL coming near how bad this one is.
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