With the recently released Forbes rich list, which analyzes the financial details of the top richest men and women in the world, we’d thought that we should compile our own list of five NHL players who make the most money, but definitely not contributing to fantasy leagues as they possibly can in the realm of fantasy hockey. All information has been taken from the website www.nhlscap.com .

We start off this column with our favorite whipping boy of this year’s fantasy hockey season, Patrick Marleau. Marleau has greatly underachieved this season but has he really? Marleau has had a ten-year career in the NHL, only two of which has he cracked the 60-point plateau. So for Marleau’s current projected pace of 46 points for a full 82 game schedule, it isn’t that far off of the totals that he experienced just four years ago. Marleau falls into the same category as Brad Richards and Scott Gomez, who don’t get a lot of praise because their strengths aren’t as apparent as they don’t show up on the score sheet. So unfortunately a lot of their real-life value really goes unnoticed by many especially those in the realm of fantasy hockey. Marleau is making a reasonable $4.50 million this year, but will see an increase in salary to $6.30 million for the next two seasons. His projected 46 point pace however will earn him an astounding 98k per point that he scores this season, which makes Marleau the first whipping boy on our shame list.  

Number four on our shame list belongs to a rugged band-aid boy, Alberta native Sheldon Souray. Souray is currently earning an annual salary of $6.25 million, and so far this NHL season Souray has spent more time off the ice than on the ice. Souray has played in 26 contests for the Oilers, while sitting out a grand total of 43 contests with a shoulder injury. Granted injuries are accidental and can happen to any player at random times, but Souray’s previous track record still doesn’t justify what the Oilers offered him during the off-season thus making him the eighth highest paid salary amongst defensemen in the NHL.  The real kicker is that Souray has had only one season where he tallied more than 40 points, and translated his career-season last year into a big hefty pay rise. For the 633 minutes that Souray will play in this season, it works out to be nearly 10k for each minute that Souray has been on the ice for the Oilers this season. Earning just over 240k per contest that he has played in, that makes Souray the fourth player on our shame list.  

With both offensive and defensive players making our shame list now it’s time to slag off the most important position on a hockey team, the goalie. Number three on our list belongs to the Bulin wall himself, Nikolai Khabibulin. Khabibulin is earning an annual salary of $6.75 million, and so far this year he has displayed a mediocre 500 record, while spending some time trying to organize band-aids, ointments, and therapies to deal with his various injuries. Assuming he gets back into game shape and keeps to his current pace, he projects to finish the season with 22 victories, along with a career-low in saves at 1211. That equates to $5,574 per save that he could potentially make by the end of the season. Does that make you want to strap on some pillows and become a NHL goalie?

Number two on the list belongs to the Devil’s own Patrick Elias. Elias is currently earning an annual salary of $7.50 million, and so far this year he has produced a dismal 18 goals and 32 assists for a total of 50 points in 65 games for the Devils. For a full 82 game schedule, that projects to a 63 point pace. On a positive note, Elias is leading the Devils in shots on goal with 232, but his career-low 7.8% shooting percentage still doesn’t justify his large salary. Another positive that fantasy owners can be quite happy about is that Elias, is tied for second in the league for game-winning goals. So at least when he does score goals, we can take solace in the fact that nearly 50% of his goals help the Devils win their game. Considering Martin Brodeur who earns the eighth ranked salary for goaltenders, is projected to make a poultry $2500 per save this season, it seems to be a much wiser investment than Elias’ projected total of just under 120k for each point that he tallies this season. Brodeur’s importance to the Devil’s certainly overshadows Elias’ importance thus making him the number two player on our shame list.

The grand daddy of them all, numero uno, on our shame list has to be Captain Ranger himself Jaromir Jagr. Jagr is currently earning an annual salary of $8.36 million, and so far this year he has produced a whooping 17 goals and 41 assists for a total of 58 points in 69 games so far for the blue shirts. For a full 82 game schedule, that projects to a near career-low of 69 points for the former five-time Art Ross trophy winner. His 208 shots on goal also project to a 248 total, which would give him the second lowest shot total in the past 10 seasons. If the projections hold true, Mr. Jagr will earn over 120k for each point that he scores this season, thus making him number one player on our shame list.

There you have it folks, our top five players that earn the most money who also happen to contribute the least to fantasy hockey this season. Of course these five gentlemen don’t hail in comparison to the new world’s richest man, Warren Buffet. By the way, the time that you just spent reading this article, Buffet probably just earned your annual salary. Buffet earned $19,026 for every minute of last year, which works out to $317.10 per second for all you math whizzes. I’m not greedy I’ll be very content to settle for Jagr’s 120k per point or maybe even Khabibulin’s $5,000 per save, thank you very much. Stayed tuned next week for our list of the top 5 biggest bargains for NHL general managers.

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