Another blow to Jonathan Huberdeau!

There is a sense in Calgary that with the departure of Darryl Sutter behind the Flames’ bench, forward Jonathan Huberdeau will have a new found swagger and is likely to get back to his old self. The forward feels confident the coaching change will get back to being the player who posted 115 points with the Florida Panthers in 2021-22, prior to the blockbuster trade that landed him in Calgary.

However, Huberdeau sustains another blow before he can prove any fan wrong. The Athletic recently published their NHL’s 10 worst contracts, 2023 edition, and the Flames’ forward and his 8-year, $84 million contract lands in third place, behind Chicago Blackhawks’ Seth Jones and St. Louis Blues’ Colton Parayko.

Nothing to boost his confidence ahead of the upcoming season:

“Extending a 29-year-old who is a year out from free agency before he played a single game for the team after a career year should’ve been an extraordinarily easy thing to not do. But the Flames — fresh off a jilted split with two franchise players — did it anyway, and they’re left with a contract that looks dead on arrival. In Year 1, Huberdeau projects to be only an $8 million player … and it gets so much worse from there.

“From that vantage point, it’s easy to see why Huberdeau’s new deal lands as the third worst in hockey. He scored just 55 points in 79 games last year — less than half of what he had the year before — and he’s now entering his 30s where the decline is much more swift and sudden. At his price tag, the expectation for the next eight years is a Net Rating of plus-11 and while Huberdeau isn’t projected to be far off that next season, Father Time will make that mountain a much steeper climb.”

If Huberdeau can get some positive out of the article is that there is a belief that “bounce-back feels extremely likely next season for a player as talented” as he is.

The Athletic might have brought forth some extra motivation to Huberdeau, whose name could be removed from that list next summer.

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