Does Johnny Gaudreau have a bad contract? Pierre-Luc Dubois? Nazem Kadri? Cap Court returns

As NHL GMs have spent the last few years saying to the salary cap: Please rise.

Those GMs are about to get their way, and so are we. It’s time for another round of Cap Court, the feature in which we put contracts on trial. The last time we did this, it was with a twist: We were looking for great contracts, not the usual bad ones. That was a nice dose of positivity, so it goes without saying that we’re headed back to the negatives this time around.

As always, we’re looking at contracts as they stand right now – we don’t care if they were good deals or made sense at some point earlier, just about what they have left and how they’re likely to turn out from now on. That can be tough to predict, of course. Back in 2022, it looked like recent extensions for Jonathan Huberdeau and J.T. Miller were in similar territory, and it’s fair to say that those two deals look very different today.

That’s a nice reminder that we shouldn’t be as confident and we might be tempted to be when it comes to some of these deals. Still, we’ll do the best we can to give five contracts a fair trial. Court is now in session.

>> Read the full post at The Athletic

(Want to read this post on The Athletic for free? Sign up for a free trial.)

The Athletic Hockey Show: Chiarots of fire

On this week's episode of The Athletic Hockey Show:
- The Habs actually got a team to give up a first for Ben Chiarot, and we have thoughts
- The Sharks lock up Tomas Hertl, but do they actually have a plan?
- Ian wants the Leafs to add Zdeno Chara, and every other ex-Senator
- Jesse Granger tries to explain what's gone wrong for the Knights
- Some listener mail, including a proposal for an NBA-like "fouling out" rule
- This Week in History goes all the way back to 1941 for a never-seen-again goalie rotation strategy, and lots more...

The Athletic Hockey Show runs most days of the week during the season, with Ian and I hosting every Thursday. There are two versions of each episode available:
- An ad-free version for subscribers that you can find here
- An ad-supported version you can get for free wherever you normally find your podcasts (like Apple or Spotify)

Grantland grab bag: Tomas Hertl cannot be stopped

In this week's grab bag: Tomas Hertl, Team Canada's ugly jerseys, more Tomas Hertl, Ben Scrivens wins twitter, and a breakdown of a vintage Craig Berube-inspired brawl.

>> Read the full post on Grantland