Best Bargain Team Ever Made? (Happy St. Patrick’s Day)

So let me explain: with the trade deadline already over and hearing all the talk of the millions and millions of dollars some of our favourite players make, I had a thought: how good a team could you make with some of the lowest paid players in the league?

I did some looking and made some rules for myself: the salary cap in the NHL is 88 million dollars currently so that was my starting point. Initially I was only going to consider players who made 5 million dollars this year eligible but frankly that list was much too long.

So I lowered the max cap hit for the 2024-25 season to a measly 1 million dollars. So any player who was said to make 1 million dollars (or less) was eligible for this team. Without looking at any point totals initially, I picked the a group of players I thought were the best out of what I had already, which can be found below, along with their current team, yearly cap hit, and total points up to this point (March 17th, 2025):

Macklin Celebrini, SJS, C (975,000) (50 pts)

Adam Fantilli, CBJ, C (950,000) (42 pts)

Conor Bedard, CHI, C (950,000) (52 pts)

Logan Cooley, UTA, C (950,000) (48 pts)

Shane Wright, SEA, C (886,666) (38 pts)

Wyatt Johnston, DAL, C (894,167) (61 pts)

Matt Martin, NYI, RW/LW (701,963) (1 pt)

Juraj Slafkovsky, MTL, LW (950,000)(41 pts)

Matvei Michkov, PHI, RW (950,000) (47 pts)

James Van Riemsdyk, CBJ, LW (900,000) (30 pts)

Will Cuylle, NYR, LW (828,333) (37 pts)

Jakub Vrana, NSH, LW (775,000) (12 pts)

Connor Brown, EDM, RW(1,000,000)(24 pts)

Craig Smith, DET, RW/C (1,000,000) (16 pts)

Matthew Knies, TOR, LW (925,000) (43 pts)

Cameron Atkinson, TBL,RW(900,000)(9 pts)

Dylan Guenther, UTA, RW (894,167) (48 pts)

Ryan Suter, STL, D (775,000) (13 pts)

Lane Hutson, MTL, D (950,000) (52 pts)

Brock Faber, MIN, D (925,000) (24 pts)

Nate Schmidt, FLA, D (800,000) (17 pts)

Adam Boqvist, NYI, D (775,000) (11 pts)

Jack Johnson, CBJ, D (775,000) (5 pts)

Erik Johnson, COL, D (1,000,000) (3 pts)

Anthony DeAngelo, NYI, D (775,000)(10 pts)

Brendan Smith, DAL, D (1,000,000) (4 pts)

Simon Nemec, NJD, D (918,333) (3 pts)

Logan Thompson, WSH, G (766,666)

29 W, 2 SO, 2.32 GAA, 0.916 SV%

Dustin Wolf, CGY, G (850,000)

22 W, 3 SO, 2.54 GAA, 0.914 SV%

Alex Lyon, DET, G (900,000)

11 W, 1 SO, 2.77 GAA, 0.900 SV%

Jakub Dobes, MTL, G (925,000)

6 W, 1 SO, 2.71 GAA, 0.907 SV%

I’ll be honest, it’s mostly name value so if I missed a player that had a decent amount of points, feel free to call me on it because I added the players before looking at points.

From there, I cut some players and I created a team largely based on points and stats with the standard 13 forwards, 7 defence, and 3 goalies. What I ended with…is actually pretty good! See below!

1st Line

Matthew Knies, TOR, LW (925,000) (43 pts)

Wyatt Johnston, DAL, C (894,167) (61 pts)

Dylan Guenther, UTA, RW (894,167) (48 pts)

2nd Line

Juraj Slafkovsky, MTL, LW (950,000)(41 pts)

Conor Bedard, CHI, C (950,000) (52 pts)

Matvei Michkov, PHI, RW (950,000) (47 pts)

3rd Line

Will Cuylle, NYR, LW (828,333) (37 pts)

Macklin Celebrini, SJS, C (975,000) (50 pts)

Connor Brown, EDM, RW(1,000,000)(24 pts)

4th Line

James Van Riemsdyk, CBJ, LW (900,000) (30 pts)

Logan Cooley, UTA, C (950,000) (48 pts)

Craig Smith, DET, RW/C (1,000,000) (16 pts)

13th Forward

Adam Fantilli, CBJ, C (950,000) (42 pts)

1st Pair

Lane Hutson, MTL, D (950,000) (52 pts)

Brock Faber, MIN, D (925,000) (24 pts)

2nd Pair

Ryan Suter, STL, D (775,000) (13 pts)

Nate Schmidt, FLA, D (800,000) (17 pts)

3rd Pair

Adam Boqvist, NYI, D (775,000) (11 pts)

Anthony DeAngelo, NYI, D (775,000)(10 pts)

7th D

Jack Johnson, CBJ, D (775,000) (5 pts)

Starter

Logan Thompson, WSH, G (766,666)

29 W, 2 SO, 2.32 GAA, 0.916 SV%

Backup

Dustin Wolf, CGY, G (850,000)

22 W, 3 SO, 2.54 GAA, 0.914 SV%

3rd String

Jakub Dobes, MTL, G (925,000)

6 W, 1 SO, 2.71 GAA, 0.907 SV%

Unlike the last team I made (let’s not talk about it), I believe this team would be fairly competitive against other NHL teams. And, while the majority of players on this team are still early in their careers and still on their entry level contracts and sure to get bigger ones when the time comes, for now players like Bedard, Celebrini, and Hutson are a huge discount.

Like, looking at this team gives me Team North America vibes from the 2016 World Cup of Hockey without having to pay outrageous amounts for star players. Will players on this team eventually get bigger contracts? Almost certainly! But, for now, I can take pride in knowing that you can build almost an allstar team for less than a million dollars per person (less than 23 million here).

Feel free to comment if you think I forgot someone on this team that makes the cut, I do this kind of stuff just for fun and I’m not an expert, have a great day, and Happy St. Patrick’s Day!