Guys that bet on themselves and it backfired

[fahad203]

A favorite of mine is Anson Carter.

Was a career 20-ish goal guy before signing a $1M/1yr deal with Vancouver where he fired off 33 goals alongside the Sedins. The rumor is that the Canucks offered him a raise from $1M to $1.7M, with Carter asking for $9M over three years. He went to free agency and signed a 1-year, $2.5M deal with Columbus. He was traded mid-season and never signed another NHL deal.

Came to post this. Carter really out bracketted himself

 

[Perfect_Drug]

In their defense, most of the public rankings had Zadina over Hughes going into the draft. Sounded like the Wings had Evan Bouchard over Hughes as well.

Kotkaniemi surges into top five of TSN Draft Ranking - TSN.ca

Finn’s strong performance at the World Under-18 Championships in April has some scouts believing he’s a potential future No. 1 centre, Bob McKenzie writes. His late push could make the top 10 of the draft more unpredictable than originally anticipated.

www.tsn.ca

From Bob McKenzie's final survey:





On the flip side, we often make fun of the Canadian teams who choose a bust who happened to be playing nearby. 1995 was the first draft I watched and Toronto picked a local product in Jeff Ware at #15 instead of seemingly consensus top 10 pick Petr Sykora who fell to the Devils at #18.

I was at the draft in Edmonton when half the arena was chanting for hometown hero DOAN DOAN DOAN... and a large contingent were cheering for us to draft the other hometown hero Iginla.

Glen Sather went up to the mic and called for Steve Kelly who none of us had heard of.

 

[FerrisRox]

On the flip side, we often make fun of the Canadian teams who choose a bust who happened to be playing nearby. 1995 was the first draft I watched and Toronto picked a local product in Jeff Ware at #15 instead of seemingly consensus top 10 pick Petr Sykora who fell to the Devils at #18.

For a little context, the Maple Leafs were run, at the time, but a General Manger who famously said "draft schmaft"

 

[frightenedinmatenum2]

Senators offer Jared Cowen eight year, $28M contract extension

The Ottawa Sun reported that the Ottawa Senators offered restricted free agent defenceman Jared Cowen an eight-year, $28M contract extension. Although the offer wasn't rejected, there remains a gap between the two sides.

www.silversevensens.com

8 years 3.5M for Cowen.

Instead, he signed 4 years at 3.1M. His cap was dumped to the Maple Leafs to subsidize the Senators acquiring Phaneuf's contract. The Maple Leafs bought him out at the end of the season. Because he was under 26, the boughtout cost him 2/3rds of his outstanding money.

It is difficult to know how much he lost out on because we don't know what the structure of the 8-year deal would have been, but I suspect that he might not have been tradeable with 5 years of term remaining. I also have a difficult time believing that Melnyk would have okayed an 10 year buyout, even if it would have saved a substantial amount of money.

It's possible that he could have been traded if he mutually agreed to go to Clarke MacArthur Cove. He did have long-term injury issues, and I suspect that a lot of players could technically pass (or is it fail?) the medical for LTIRetirement based on nagging injuries that the player and team mutually agree to play through.

Regardless, he lost at least a few million dollars, and at worst about 15 million USD before taxes/escrow.

 

[Brodeur]

For a little context, the Maple Leafs were run, at the time, but a General Manger who famously said "draft schmaft"

If I recall correctly, Leafs assistant GM Bill Watters knew Ware’s family and he vouched for him.

I was at the draft in Edmonton when half the arena was chanting for hometown hero DOAN DOAN DOAN... and a large contingent were cheering for us to draft the other hometown hero Iginla.

Glen Sather went up to the mic and called for Steve Kelly who none of us had heard of.

Stanley Cup champion Steve Kelly! For what it’s worth, Kelly was ranked ahead of Doan and Iginla in THN’s Draft Preview.

 

[FerrisRox]

If I recall correctly, Leafs assistant GM Bill Watters knew Ware’s family and he vouched for him.

That checks out because Bill was as dumb as a bag of rocks.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Devante Smith-Pelly had a few multi-year offers on the table after his playoff performance in 2018 but turned them down because he thought he was in line for a bigger payday. He showed up to camp in 2018-19 out of shape and overweight, got waived by Washington, and was out of the league after that season.

Klingberg has to be the biggest bag fumbler in recent memory though.

 

[Voight]

Unfortunately for Hall he became UFA into the pandemic season. I thought the reason he signed the 1 year deal was that nobody had the cap space to offer him a big contract due to the flat cap.

If you believe the Devils, they never got to the point of making a formal offer to keep Hall who seemed like he had one foot out the door in 2019. Arizona offered him a somewhat tepid extension that Hall turned down.

Nope, his plan was to have a huge year playing with Eichel and pump up his value.

Tho he apparently had a hard on for Boston and ended up there in the end.

 

[Brookbank]

Fun topic. This doesn't actually happen that often in the grand scheme. Most of the time , the players are robbing the teams blind.

 

[Mr Positive]

Another interesting situation is the opposite. Someone who signed a safe deal long term for security but exploded, and regretted it. The NBA one would be Scottie Pippen.

 

[Perfect_Drug]

For what it’s worth, Kelly was ranked ahead of Doan and Iginla in THN’s Draft Preview.

LMFAO THN.

So I just graduated from highschool, and was here at this draft:

This article literally described what I remember perfectly of that day:

Edmonton Oilers' top 10 all-time worst draft busts: #3 Steve Kelly

Edmonton Oilers fans had reason to be excited as we gathered at Northlands Coliseum for the 1995 NHL Entry Draft. It was the first — and still the only — time that …

edmontonjournal.com

Nearly 30 years later, I remember the Habs going through the same thing with Kotkaniemi:

I just remember this lady's reaction to Kotkaniemi over Brady Tkachuk:
This was literally the EXACT same reaction out of the audience in Edmonton when we drafted Kelly.

 

[tarheelhockey]

Another interesting situation is the opposite. Someone who signed a safe deal long term for security but exploded, and regretted it. The NBA one would be Scottie Pippen.

I don’t want to put words in his mouth about regretting it because he’s not an especially money-motivated person, but Jaccob Slavin has been on a $5.3M deal since 2018.

 

[McGarnagle]

Another interesting situation is the opposite. Someone who signed a safe deal long term for security but exploded, and regretted it. The NBA one would be Scottie Pippen.

Brad Marchand signed 8 years at $6.125 million AAV in 2016 coming off a career high 61 point season at 28 years old, then over the 8 years posted 85, 85, 100, 87, 69(in 53 games), 80, 68, 67, and 48*(still ongoing) point seasons.

 

[Satoru Gojo]

Mike Babcock

 

[Craig Ludwig]

Kovalchuk left a ton of money to go to the KHL, he make bank there too, but point of the matter guy left the NHL with at the time the biggest contract in NHL history.

Pretty sure he made much more in KHL, as there's not much tax to pay over there.

 

[Craig Ludwig]

Klingberg got a $7m consolation prize from the ducks (and made about $12m overall) but man…turning down ~$50m or whatever it was rumord for that has got to be tough

He basically threw away about $40 Million....$40 Million!!!! He is the poster boy for this thread

 

[Craig Ludwig]

Another interesting situation is the opposite. Someone who signed a safe deal long term for security but exploded, and regretted it. The NBA one would be Scottie Pippen.

That was Nathan Mackinnon for many years.

 

[kerrabria]

Taking my answer in a different direction--

Matt Duchene was cocky and irresponsible, and he ended up burning several bridges and getting jettisoned from several teams. He made plenty of money, but not as much as he could have, and he spent most of his career on weak teams and never found/earned long term stability.

 

[Chainshot]

Cody Franson and Toronto. Turned down like 20 millionish or something like that and never got anywhere close to it.

Was thinking Dominic Moore also left a bit of cash behind as he began the nomadic life of an NHL journeyman. Think he wanted around 3M and the Leafs were offering multiple years around 2M and he didn't ever reach either in a season's payroll after.

 

[GoldOnGold]

Barry Trotz as GM

 

[GeeoffBrown]

Alex Formenton could have signed his qualifying offer with Ottawa Senators and instead he's going to prison

 

[Nemesis Prime]

I was at the draft in Edmonton when half the arena was chanting for hometown hero DOAN DOAN DOAN... and a large contingent were cheering for us to draft the other hometown hero Iginla.

Glen Sather went up to the mic and called for Steve Kelly who none of us had heard of.

I want to see the timeline where Iginla is burying Hemsky passes.

 

[SoundAndFury]

I saw this recently and thought how bad of a money decision it was for Thomas Vanek to turn down the reported $50 million offered by the Islanders

Vanek isn't really an example for the title of this thread though.

Everyone and their mom knew at the time that he wanted to move to Minnesota, where he went to college and his wife was from. He didn't "bet on himself" to maximize his earnings, he was a very rich player already (close to 60 million in career earnings) who simply prioritized other things over the highest bidder. It might have been a "bad money decision" but that's purely because it wasn't focused one the money at all.

 

[HockeyVirus]

Cody Franson and Toronto. Turned down like 20 millionish or something like that and never got anywhere close to it.

He had a few good seasons but there was one year he was on our top pairing and had 30-40 games where he was outstanding and looked absolutely legit. He played well enough to get those offers but wasn't smart enough to know he was playing over his abilities and actually thought he was now a top pair D

 

[Breakers]

Klingberg according to Johnson and Dreger was the one that turned it down.

NOT his agent. His agent got him that sweetheart deal in the state of texas with their taxes.

then the relationship was so bad he went to the biggest agency in hockey in Newport hoping they could fix things.

he believed he was closer to other defenseman contracts with higher AAV signed earlier.

once July 1st hit 8 years was gone POOF disappeared, and he had to now find the same money offered from Dallas in 7 years from someone else which is instantly more difficult as the AAV is higher.

just brutal decision making
maybe his agent didnt outline everything in a clear manner

but Klingberg did in fact choose to go to free agency