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The Anaheim Ducks are having a terrible season with only seven wins in 21 games and sitting in fifth place in the Pacific Division with 18 points. And to make matters worse, it’s starting to show that Anaheim’s decision to extend Ryan Kesler‘s contract was an awful idea.
During the offseason, Anaheim extended Kesler’s contract for six years at a cost of $6.875 million a year, which I personally don’t understand the reasoning behind. Kesler’s point production has been on a steady decline since putting up 75 points during the 2009-10 season and 73 points during the 2010-11 season. Since then, Kesler has been unable to surpass 50 points in a season and finished the 2014-15 season with 47 points in 81 games.
The contract extension won’t affect Anaheim’s salary cap until next season because Kesler is on the final year of his previous contract of $5 million a year. This is Kesler’s worst season yet, and he is going to make $1.875 million more next season, and that contract will last until the 2021-22 season.
So far this season, Kesler is continuing to show that he is on the decline in his career with only one goal and seven points in 21 games. It can be argued that Kesler’s poor start to the season is because of Anaheim’s poor play as a team that has affected Kesler this season, but I don’t think Kesler would be doing any better even if Anaheim was the top team in the league.
Anaheim’s contract with Ryan Kesler will probably be one of the worst NHL contracts for the next few years, and they probably won’t be able to trade him because no team would want Kesler at a cost of $6.875 million a year.
