Team: 2022-23 Custom Team

Initial Creation Date: Sep. 24, 2022

Published: Sep. 24, 2022

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

In an attempt to "solve" the best cap compliant team challenge, I made a spreadsheet of player contract value measured in WAR per $1m cap hit, using Patrick Bacon's 2021-22 WAR and the current season's cap hits. The team below is NOT the best possible cap compliant team per Bacon's numbers, but a team of the best value contracts by this measure.

Best Contract: Troy Terry, 2.989 WAR per million
Best Defenseman Contract: Chad Ruhwedel, 2.867 WAR per million, 2nd overall
Best ELC: Matt Boldy, 2.357 WAR per million, 6th overall

Using WAR/$, there is no way to measure the worst contract, as a significant number of players have a negative WAR value. To fix this, I also measured contracts in Wins Above Phil Kessel per million, using Bacon's lowest ranked player Phil Kessel as the zero value. Here are the best and worst contracts by this measure:

Best Contract: Chad Ruhwedel, 5.455 WAPK per million
Best Forward Contract: Michael Amadio, 5.257 WAPK per million, 2nd overall
Best ELC: Matt Boldy, 4.707 WAPK per million, 3rd overall

Worst Contract: Phil Kessel, 0 WAPK per million (duh)
2nd Worst Contract: Radek Faksa, 0.086 WAPK per million
Worst Defenseman Contract: Tyler Myers, 0.156 WAPK per million, 4th worst overall

For the team below, I am using the top 12 forwards and 6 defensemen, as measured by WAR/$, with no ELC players included. If you'd like to know a player's ranking, leave a comment below.