The 5 Biggest Overpays from 2024 NHL Free Agency | News, Scores, Highlights, Stats, and Rumors

The Seattle Kraken went from being a top-10 offensive team in 2022-23 to one of the league's worst offensive squads in 2023-24. It was obvious they were going to have to do something this offseason to address that. They made two huge free-agent investments on Monday, and they were both among the biggest overpays of the day.

Let's start with the most glaring of the two, which is the seven-year, $43.7 million contract given to Chandler Stephenson.

There is nothing wrong with having Stephenson on your roster, especially with the way he progressed after joining the Golden Knights a few years ago and really started to breakout offensively.

But signing non-star players in free agency for seven-year contracts is an especially risky move. When the dollar figure gets up over $6 million per year for a player who is going to be 30 years old next season and saw a 14-point drop in his production despite increasing his shooting percentage, it becomes almost nonsensical.

There are some contracts that you know are going to be a problem for a team before the ink dries.

This could be one of them.

It's a great deal for Stephenson, and a testament to how much his career improved the past few years, but it might be one that Seattle quickly comes to regret.