Worst Salaries of the Past Decade

Ryan Lambert at Puck Daddy takes a looks at the 5 best and 5 worst contracts of the past decade. Guess which list is full of Rangers.

3. Wade Redden, New York Rangers
Redden gets escorted out of Ottawa by a group of the local citizenry that had armed itself with torches and pitchforks. That's fine. It happens. And he was, for a little while, one of the better defensemen in the league.

But after Redden came off a 6-32-38 season in 2007-08 (his worst since the ‘90s), the Rangers said, "Hey Wade, we want you on board." And Redden should've been happy with that. Big market, and he probably figured he'd get decent money.

He was wrong. He got obscene money.

His six-year, $39 million deal gives the Rangers a cap hit of $6.5 million through 2014. For a player that has, in his first 105 games in New York, produced four goals, 28 assists and has looked like a turnstile most nights. Don't worry though, Ranger fans. Only four more years of that after this one!

2. Bobby Holik, New York Rangers, then Atlanta Thrashers
Holik got ridiculous money to jump from the Devils to the Rangers in the summer of 2002. I mean, $9 million would have been a lot for anyone, let alone Holik who had a career high of 65 points.

But again, pre-lockout, who cares, right?

Well, the problem for the Rangers was that the contract obviously spilled into the new CBA, and even with the salary rollback they were paying Bobby "freaking" Holik $6.726 million when the salary cap was just -- get this -- $39 million. So they bought him out and then had to pay him another $3.5 million for not playing during the lockout. The Rangers were less than pleased with that, as you can imagine.

He then signed with the Thrashers for a nearly-as-ridiculous $12.75 million, and in return Atlanta got 96 points. It begs the question: Of how many NHL executives does Holik own compromising photos?

...i think Lambert was pretty kind to the Rangers here as he could have made the list completely Blueshirts by adding Drury, Gomez and Rozsival.