Many people believe the answer is resoundingly YES.
I pulled a few recent articles including:
Karlsson contract single handedly ruined Sharks season
And this delicious quote from a Toronto paper:
Catastrophe in Buffalo
"Thirteen games in, Jack Eichel has scored twice. Taylor Hall has scored once. And Jeff Skinner hasn’t scored at all.
Combined, a high-paid trio that is earning $27-million this year has one even-strength goal and nine even-strength points. Skinner, who’s $9-million cap hit makes him the highest-paid fourth-line forward in the NHL, hasn’t scored in almost 12 months."
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It's for these types of reasons why so many and I mean many people in Vancouver are on Bennings case about poor contracts. Just one bad contract can absolutely crush a team, no joke. Yet Canucks have several, it's incredible they are where they are in the standings considering how bad their contract managment has been.
Cautionary tale here for EP and QH contracts coming up, they can make or break a team just 2 guys is enough to completely tank a team as shown.
Thoughts are welcomed.