According to PuckPedia, 125 skaters and 10 goalies carried a cap hit of at least $7 million during the 2025-26 season, including seven from the Florida Panthers: Aleksander Barkov, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Reinhart, Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, Seth Jones, and Sergei Bobrovsky.
Recently, Athlon Sports ranked the NHL's five worst contracts in a social media post highlighting the worst deals across North America's four major professional sports leagues. Notably, two of the top five worst NHL contracts have strong ties to the Panthers: Jones' eight-year $76 million contract, which ranked fourth overall, and former Florida star Jonathan Huberdeau, who ranked first.
Florida acquired Jones, along with a fourth-round pick in 2026, from the Chicago Blackhawks on Mar. 1, 2025, in a deal involving a first-round pick in 2026 and netminder Spencer Knight. He contributed two goals and nine points in 21 regular-season games before chipping in another four goals and nine points in 23 playoff games, capturing his first Stanley Cup.
Almost immediately, Jones got a lot of ice time, averaging 24:55 in those first 21 games before seeing an increase to 25:30 during the playoffs. However, in his first full season with the Panthers, 2025-26, Jones saw his ice time drop to 23:42 per night, the lowest average since 2016-17, when he was with the Columbus Blue Jackets.
A broken foot in March ended his season, marking the fifth consecutive season in which Jones failed to skate in all his team's games. In fact, he has suited up for every game just three times in his career: 2014-15, 2019-20, and 2020-21.
Despite missing so much time with injury, Jones ended up as the Panthers' highest-scoring defenseman and the eighth-best scorer on the team. But, as the sixth-highest-paid defender in the NHL, Jones compiled the 55th-most points for a player in his position, while averaging the 23rd-highest minutes per game.
The Panthers took a significant risk when they brought in Jones, who will turn 32 in October, and at first, his presence helped them secure the second of their back-to-back championships. However, he's under contract for the next four seasons with one of the team's larger cap hits.
Jones' career plus/minus rating is minus-142, and in just 73 games with Florida, he's already minus-9. For someone making $7 million a year, fans should expect him to tally more than 40 points per season and have a positive contribution on the scoresheet. Yet, his production doesn't match his salary, which is one reason Athlon Sports ranked him so highly.
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