Bargain-bin dream team: The best NHL roster possible under the salary cap

Some of the NHL's biggest names are signed to contracts that leave fans dumbfounded as to how a player of such high quality could be paid so little. With that in mind, we've put together a salary-cap compliant team filled with players on the most team-friendly contracts in the NHL, but with two exceptions:

• Players on entry-level contracts are excluded. Otherwise, the roster would simply be filled with the game's elite young players who've yet to reach their second contract.
• Any players in the last year of their current deal are excluded, whether they are set to hit free agency next offseason (e.g. Tyler Seguin), or already signed to a big-money extension that will take effect beginning in the 2019-20 season (e.g. Nikita Kucherov).

So, without further ado, here is the best possible team we can fit under the 2018-19 salary cap ($79.5 million) that's made up of players signed through at least 2019-20 on their current deal and who are beyond their entry-level contracts:

Forwards

Line 1

LW	C	RW
Brad Marchand - BOS ($6.125M)	Nathan MacKinnon - COL ($6.3M)	Mark Scheifele - WPG ($6.125M)

It's quite remarkable all three of these superstars are signed at their bargain cap hits through at least the 2022-23 season. Scheifele, of course, is a center, but the depth down the middle on this team is outstanding, so he shifts to the wing to compliment two Halifax natives in Marchand and MacKinnon.

Line 2

LW	C	RW
Taylor Hall - NJ ($6M)	Aleksander Barkov - FLA ($5.9M)	Rickard Rakell - ANA ($3.789M)

Hall is the reigning Hart Trophy winner, and yet he somehow winds up on the second line here. Meanwhile, Barkov and Rakell are two of the more underrated players in the NHL. Barkov finished fourth in Selke Trophy voting as the league's best defensive forward, while Rakell is quietly coming off back-to-back 30-goal seasons.

Line 3

LW	C	RW
Erik Haula - VGK ($2.75M)	Sean Couturier - PHI ($4.3M)	Josh Anderson - CBJ ($1.85M)

The Flyers gambled on Couturier - handing him a six-year, $26-million contract after a ho-hum 37-point season - but they sure look like geniuses after a breakout 76-point campaign in which he finished second in Selke voting. The third-line wings feature Anderson, a prototypical power forward who can score, and Haula, who had a breakout 29-goal year in the inaugural Golden Knights season.

Line 4

LW	C	RW
Blake Coleman - NJ ($1.8M)	Nazem Kadri - TOR ($4.5M)	Austin Watson - NSH ($1.1M)

Having an effective matchup center in Kadri who's also potted consecutive 32-goal seasons is a luxury, but this team can afford it. Putting him between a takeaway master in Coleman and one of the league's better penalty killers in Watson - despite the latter's off-ice issues - would create an impressive fourth line.

Sum of forward contracts: $50.54M
Notable omissions: Brayden Schenn - STL ($5.125M), Vincent Trocheck - FLA ($4.75M), Viktor Arvidsson - NSH ($4.25M), Brendan Gallagher - MTL ($3.75M), Zach Hyman - TOR ($2.25M), Connor Brown - TOR ($2.1M)

Defense

Pairing 1

LD	RD
Roman Josi - NSH ($4M)	Seth Jones - CBJ ($5.4M)

Josi's salary could realistically triple when his contract expires after the 2019-20 season. For comparison, Drew Doughty will become the NHL's highest-paid defender with an average annual salary of $11 million when his extension kicks in a year from now, and while Josi may be a notch below him, he could sign an even bigger contract on the open market due to the rising salary cap. Meanwhile, Jones is coming off a breakout year and is locked up for four more seasons.

Pairing 2

LD	RD
Shayne Gostisbehere - PHI ($4.5M)	John Klingberg - DAL ($4.25M)

The Flyers locked up Gostisbehere after his 2016-17 sophomore slump, but he bounced back with a ridiculous 65 points last season, and he's still just 25 years old. And besides stealing Seguin from the Boston Bruins, Jim Nill's best move as Stars GM was signing Klingberg to a seven-year, $29.75-million contract after his rookie year.

Pairing 3

LD	RD
Mattias Ekholm - NSH ($3.75M)	Ryan Pulock - NYI ($2M)

Ekholm makes it three (and counting) Predators on this squad. Meanwhile, Pulock might be the weak point on the back end of this team, but he's an up-and-comer with one of the league's hardest shots.

Sum of defense contracts: $23.9M
Notable omissions: Morgan Rielly - TOR ($5M), Oscar Klefbom - EDM ($4.167M), Jake Muzzin - LA ($4M), Brandon Montour - ANA ($3.3875), Brayden McNabb - VGK ($2.5M)

Goaltending

G
Andrei Vasilevskiy - TB ($3.5M)
Juuse Saros - NSH ($1.5M)

Vasilevskiy's 2017-18 campaign was a tale of two seasons, as he starred in the first half but faded down the stretch. Nonetheless, a Vezina Trophy nominee at $3.5 million is an absolute steal. And Saros is seemingly ready to take the reins in Nashville whenever Pekka Rinne gives them up.

Sum of goaltending contracts: $5M
Notable omissions: Frederik Andersen - TOR ($5M), Devan Dubnyk - MIN ($4.3M), Matt Murray - PIT ($3.75M)

Conclusion

Sum of total contracts: $79.44M
2018-19 NHL salary cap: $79.5M

The biggest takeaway from this exercise is that some of the best contracts in the NHL are a result of foresight by general managers who showed faith in young players by locking them into long-term deals before they reached their peaks.

Sure, many contracts on this roster are simply bridge deals, but the most valuable (in terms of length) were signed when question marks remained about whether a player would ever reach his full potential. Couturier, Kadri, Rakell, Josi, and Ekholm are all great examples.

For an in-depth example, let's look more closely at Couturier, who was highly touted and signed his current deal after four seasons of solid defensive work but middling offensive production. His $4.3-million cap hit would've easily been tradeable even if he never progressed, and in the first two years after signing the extension, he yielded similar results. Then, at 25, Couturier found his game a little later than many expected, but now the Flyers have an absolute steal on their hands for four more years.

Sure, there are examples of long-term contracts signed by young players that went horribly wrong. But as long as the annual value isn't outrageous, these sort of risky, long-term contracts tend to age well over time as the salary cap rises - an observation all general managers should be making.

Nashville's David Poile is clearly one of the GMs most willing to hand out such contracts. The Predators lead the way with four players on this roster, and it's no coincidence they've been one of the league's most successful teams over the last few years - and should continue to be - as a result.

(Photos courtesy: Getty Images)
(Salary information courtesy: Cap Friendly)

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