For those in salary cap leagues – here are the 10 worst NHL contracts

When it comes to cap leagues, there are two main rules you need to follow to be successful:

1. 1.Stay away from anyone expensive that isn't a stud, and
2. 2.Acquire good young cheap guys.

While the second is harder, the first is most important. Nothing sinks a cap league fantasy team more than having a couple of $7 million players that can't score and have horrible plus/minuses, among other horrific categories.

With the free agent season upon us, many players are about to get contracts that teams can't afford. But before you go out and trade for these guys on your fantasy squad, just remember this list and what can happen when teams, and fantasy squads, overpay.

For the following list, we're just focusing on guys who are already signed for next year, instead of guessing what certain players will get on their next contract.  But rest assured, no matter what his contract, Dany Heatley is probably on this list in a few months' time.

By the way, if you were to have every player on this list on your team this past season, it would have cost you $60.67 million in cap space.

10. Travis Zajac

Zajac is making $5.75 million each year for the next seven years. That's seems outrageously   high for a player that has never cracked 70 points or scored more than 25 goals, and has averaged around 0.5 points per game in five of his seven NHL seasons. Yes, he had two half-decent seasons, but that was four years ago when he was playing regularly with Zach Parise.  His only saving grace is in faceoffs, where he has been one of the best for a few years.

9. Ryane Clowe

It wasn't too long ago this Newfie was considered a bargain. Playing with the Sharks, Clowe put up three straight 50-plus point seasons, racking up around 100 penalty minutes per season. There are pretty solid fantasy contributions. But then Clowe started to fall off until last offseason, when the Devils signed him to a five-year deal at $4.85 million per season.  Thanks to injuries, he played just 43 games this past year, scored seven goals and was a minus-10. Even worse, his biggest fantasy contribution was down as well, with Clowe getting just 33 penalty minutes.

8. Dion Phaneuf

Phaneuf is a tough one to categorize. He's easily the Leafs top defenceman. But he hasn't broken 45 points since getting to Toronto five seasons ago. Last year, he had just eight goals and 31 points with a plus-three rating.  And somehow, that leads to Phaneuf getting a raise. Starting next year, Phaneuf will be making $7 million a year for seven years. Right now, that means he'll be the fifth highest cap hit for defencemen next season. However, he is gold for penalty minutes (his 144 pims were ninth in the league), hits (fifth among defencemen) and blocks (20th for defencemen). So there is some value there, just not $7 million of value.

7. Eric Staal

Maybe he doesn't belong on this list as much as the others, but his cap hit is too ridiculous to justify leaving Staal off. He's making $8.25 million for the next two years. This year, that meant he was the fifth highest cap hit. At no point should any of the Staal brothers ever be in the top five in salary.  The 29-year-old is pretty consistent a 70-point guy as you can find (he's hit at least 70 points every season since 2003-04 until last year), but that's still no excuse for a cap hit that is higher than Phil Kessel, Steven Stamkos and Tuuka Rask.

6. Alexander Semin

Semin is signed for another four years at $7 million. He is one of the toughest guys on this list to rank. When he's playing to his potential (40 goals and a point-per-game pace), he's golden. The trouble is he's too inconsistent and injury prone to be counted upon. Semin has missed at least four games every year he's been in the NHL, and averages just 69 games played a season. But when he has a stinker like he did this past season (just 22 goals and 42 points in 65 games), a $7 million cap hit is just too much.

5. Brad Richards

Richards' contract is a throwback to the pre-2004 lockout: A team pays a veteran player based on what he's done, not what he can do. Richards is slated to earn $6.67 million a year for the next six seasons, a little much for a 33-year-old whose points-per-game has declined for each of the last five seasons. His 51 points just isn't good enough for a player with such a high cap hit.

4. Tyler Myers

Just two seasons ago, Myers made an amazing $12 million, which included a $10 million signing bonus. That was enough to help push Myers to an average cap hit of $5.5 million a season (tied for 17^th highest among defencemen). It doesn't help that he's a defenceman of diminishing returns. His points-per-game keeps declining (to think of how bad he is, this year, his points-per-game pace skyrocketed to 0.35), and his minus-26 was the fourth worst for defencemen.

3. Jordan Staal

It's time to admit defeat on this one. Jordan Staal will never be a great NHL player, despite the hype. For years, he was on the third line in Pittsburgh, and Staal fans just kept re-iterating that if he could ever be a No.1 or No.2 centre in the NHL, he'd be great.  He's hit 50 points just once, and since joining Carolina in 2012-13, Staal has 71 points in 130 games, and is a minus-16. And he's making $6 million a year for the next nine years!

2. Stephen Weiss

Almost everyone was wrong on this last season, but a year later, it appears the Red Wings have signed a lemon in Weiss. Thinking he would be the second line centre in Detroit for five years at $4.9 million a year, many fantasy owners overpaid to get him. But Weiss didn't come close to panning out. He played just 26 games, and score two goals and two assists. He was so bad, that he eventually ended up on the third line, and played just 14:45 minutes and 1:29 of power play ice time a game. With all the youth showcasing their skills this past season, Weiss may never again get the opportunity to be the second line centre we were hoping for.

1. David Clarkson

Everyone saw this coming except maybe Leaf fans. But just in NHL terms, Clarkson's deal is atrocious. He's making $5.25 million for another six years, and the contract is constructed in a way that the team couldn't even get cap relief by buying him out. In terms of fantasy hockey, it's even worse. He was a minus-14 this season, and has been a minus-player in six of his eight NHL seasons (his highest plus-minus was a plus-three in 2009-10). He's only had more than 17 goals once, and never cracked 50 points.  It's going to be a long few years for Clarkson owners in cap leagues.