While Erik Karlsson might disagree, it's been an eventful offseason in the NHL from a player transaction standpoint. Not only with the free-agent frenzy producing the John Tavares blockbuster and several other notable deals, but with teams hanging onto their own players on long-term extensions.
Many of these contracts are laudable, some are risky and others are just baffling -- perhaps due to the term, perhaps due to the money, perhaps due to the truly strange motivations by either management or players that pushed the contract in that weird direction.
Here are five of the most baffling contracts handed out in summer 2018:
The deal: Six years, $31 million
Defending the virtues of Tom Wilson probably requires the round-the-clock management of a public relations crisis firm, but I'll give it a shot:
His physicality can change the direction of a game or an entire playoff series, and his postseason offensive burst during the Capitals' run to the Stanley Cup was impressive.