The NHL regular season is almost in the books, and every team had an MVP performance worth highlighting. But on the other side of the spectrum, some players have failed to impress.
Before we turn the page to the playoffs for some teams and the offseason for others at the end of next week, The Athletic asked its NHL staff for the player who emerged as most disappointing on each team this season.
Here’s who our writers picked.
Anaheim Ducks
Robby Fabbri, RW
Fabbri came from Detroit in a salary dump, and if he had solidified the Ducks’ third line and provided the kind of depth scoring that’s helped him hit double digits six times in his career, they could have gotten great value for very little. But while he played with energy, Fabbri had two long-term injuries and played only 44 games while scoring eight times. — Eric Stephens
Boston Bruins
Jeremy Swayman, G
Swayman signed an eight-year, $66 million contract after missing all of camp. He has not fulfilled the expectations of his deal (.894 save percentage through 57 appearances). Goaltending became a weakness for the club after being a position of strength. — Fluto Shinzawa
Buffalo Sabres
Jack Quinn, RW
Quinn was supposed to be a breakout candidate for the Sabres. He gets top-six minutes and power-play time but is minus-19 this season with just 14 goals and 36 points. And 10 of those points have come in the last eight games with the playoffs well out of reach. — Matthew Fairburn
Calgary Flames
Yegor Sharangovich, C/RW
Sharangovich’s stats took a sharp fall in 2024-25 after he was the team’s leading goal scorer last season. What makes matters worse is his down year comes on the eve of a five-year contract extension that begins next season. The Flames will hope for a return to his 2023-24 form. — Julian McKenzie
Carolina Hurricanes
Brent Burns, RHD
Burns’ point production has gone from 61 in his first season in Raleigh to 43 last year and now 28 with four games remaining this season. He’s still logging big minutes and has taken on a bigger defensive role, both at even strength and on the penalty kill, but his days as a feared offensive player are over, and that makes his mistakes more glaring. — Cory Lavalette
Chicago Blackhawks
Philipp Kurashev, RW
Kurashev was one of the Blackhawks’ top offensive players last season, setting career highs with 18 goals and 36 assists. He excelled alongside Connor Bedard, getting talked about as a future duo. This season couldn’t have gone much worse for Kurashev. He has seven goals and seven assists in 50 games and has often been a healthy scratch. — Scott Powers
Colorado Avalanche
Casey Mittelstadt, C
There was hope Mittelstadt would level up in Colorado’s system, but he struggled to generate offense before he was traded to Boston at the deadline. He had only 34 points in 63 games, with a team-worst rating of minus-12. Logan O’Connor was also an option here, but he picked up his offensive production a bit down the stretch. — Jesse Granger
Columbus Blue Jackets
Damon Severson, RHD
It was hoped that Severson would find a foothold in the Blue Jackets’ top four in his second season in Columbus, but it hasn’t happened. Severson, who still has six years remaining after this season at $6.25 million per season, has played almost exclusively on the third pair since late December. He’s been a healthy scratch in five straight games. — Aaron Portzline
Dallas Stars
Cody Ceci, RHD
It’s all relative because Dallas doesn’t have any obvious weaknesses. Ceci has filled a role and been, for the most part, fine in tough minutes. But the Stars have been heavily out-attempted and out-chanced with Ceci on the ice. That said, they were still outscoring opponents 28-17 in his minutes as of Monday (his PDO of 110 is by far the highest on the team). — Mark Lazerus
Detroit Red Wings
Vladimir Tarasenko, RW
Tarasenko hasn’t come close to being the player the Red Wings needed him to be this season, after signing him to a two-year deal worth $4.75 million annually. His production has been a shell of even what he did last season in Ottawa, and he hasn’t been notably impactful beyond the scoresheet, either. A buyout has to at least be a consideration. — Max Bultman
Jeff Skinner, LW
There are many, many options for consideration, but Skinner is the pick. He was signed to be a staple on Leon Draisaitl’s left side and barely remained in the top six out of training camp. He’d been a healthy scratch 10 times entering Friday. Skinner has been much better in the second half in all facets but has rarely gained traction from his coach. — Daniel Nugent-Bowman
Florida Panthers
Adam Boqvist, RHD
Boqvist seemed like a candidate to be Florida’s latest reclamation project on the blue line, or at least a power-play option. He was neither. The Panthers waived him Jan. 31, and he was claimed by the Islanders. — Sean Gentille
Los Angeles Kings
Phillip Danault, C
There aren’t many candidates from a Kings team that has performed well, especially at home, and has challenged Vegas for the Pacific Division title. Danault’s lack of goal scoring could fall into this column, and he’s had only one power-play point despite playing regularly on the second unit. But he’s still a solid, trusted defensive presence. — Eric Stephens
Minnesota Wild
Yakov Trenin, LW
With limited cap space last summer, the Wild signed the former Predators and Avalanche forward to an exorbitant four-year, $14 million contract on July 1. It was thought the Wild would devote that money to some kind of scoring threat, but they changed paths and looked for somebody who could help them rediscover a hard-nosed, defensive-minded identity. The problem is Trenin still hasn’t really found traction in the lineup. He’s picked it up physically and scored a goal Friday, but he was part of a penalty kill that has mostly disappointed. Still, at the recent GM meetings, Predators GM Barry Trotz told The Athletic he still feels Trenin’s full value to the Wild will be felt in the playoffs. — Michael Russo
Montreal Canadiens
Kirby Dach, C
Another serious knee injury derailed Dach’s chance to make up for a lackluster first half, which was at least in part due to his last serious knee injury. Still, it would be impossible to characterize his season as anything other than disappointing, and the Canadiens have a hole at second-line center that needs filling this offseason. — Arpon Basu
Nashville Predators
Juuse Saros, G
Some will disagree — including some in the Predators organization — and excuse Saros’ season as the product of failure all around him. Certainly, there are other prime candidates, such as defenseman Brady Skjei. But Saros is supposed to be elite; he just got an eight-year deal with that in mind, and his season was terrible. It’s not all on everyone else. — Joe Rexrode
New Jersey Devils
Simon Nemec, RHD
There’s no reason to get too down on Nemec, the No. 2 pick in the 2022 NHL Draft, but he has not had a great sophomore season. He played nearly 20 minutes a night in 2023-24 in 60 games, and this season, he’s down to 14:34 in only 24 games. He’s spent much of the year in AHL Utica and has yet to fully earn the trust of coach Sheldon Keefe. — Peter Baugh
New York Islanders
Anthony Duclair, LW
Not to pile on Duclair, who’s away from the Islanders after Patrick Roy publicly lambasted the 29-year-old winger, but he was the one prominent free-agent signing last summer and, after missing two months with a groin injury and scoring just 11 points in 44 games, it’s safe to say this wasn’t a great move by Lou Lamoriello. — Arthur Staple
New York Rangers
Chris Kreider, LW
There are plenty of options to choose from. Kreider, though, has seen a dramatic decrease in every offensive category. His 21 goals would be respectable for another player, but the Rangers had gotten used to him scoring more than 30 in recent years. Plus, he has only five assists, one primary — hard to do given his power-play usage. — Peter Baugh
Ottawa Senators
Travis Hamonic, RHD
Hamonic is a seventh defenceman at this point in his career. But due to injuries, he’s found himself playing on every pairing. He carries a lot of meaning to players in the room but doesn’t carry the same skills that justified his usage over players such as Nikolas Matinpalo until recently. — Julian McKenzie
Philadelphia Flyers
Ivan Fedotov, G
Goaltending has been an issue all season, particularly from the backups: Fedotov and Aleksei Kolosov. Fedotov had some decent games from time to time, but consistency eluded him. This essentially looks like a failed experiment, and Fedotov is still on the hook at $3.275 million next season. — Kevin Kurz
Pittsburgh Penguins
Tristan Jarry, G
Simply put, he was exiled to the minor leagues not once but twice this season. It sure hasn’t all been his fault. But if he had produced even an average season, the Penguins might have been a playoff team. — Josh Yohe
San Jose Sharks
Alexandar Georgiev, G
Look, the veteran Georgiev is playing behind a bad defense. Very bad. And there wasn’t much question that getting him as part of the trade return for Mackenzie Blackwood would be a downgrade in net. But Georgiev, with an .870 save percentage and 4.03 goals-against average, didn’t find his old form in San Jose and figures to be moving on. — Eric Stephens
Seattle Kraken
Philipp Grubauer, G
The Kraken performed like a playoff-caliber team in games that Joey Daccord started. Though Grubauer found his form a bit later on in the year, the Kraken picked up 15 of 50 available points in games that Grubauer started, including a run of eight losses in Grubauer’s first nine games. — Thomas Drance
St. Louis Blues
Brandon Saad, LW
Saad signed a five-year, $22.5 million contract in 2021, and in the first three years of it, he was the same consistent winger he’s been over his 14-year career. This season, Saad had just seven goals and 16 points in 43 games and was scratched. He was assigned to the AHL but instead walked away from $5 million left on his contract and signed with Vegas. — Jeremy Rutherford
Tampa Bay Lightning
Cam Atkinson, RW
The Lightning’s elite core has been firing on all cylinders, and a lot of the high-end supporting cast has delivered exactly what the team needed. It’s tough to pinpoint this one, but Atkinson wasn’t able to provide the secondary scoring the team signed him for in the bottom six and his two-way game also disappointed. — Shayna Goldman
Toronto Maple Leafs
Max Domi, C
Not only has Domi, in the first year of a four-year contract, had two goal droughts of more than 20 games, he also hasn’t set up nearly as many goals as last season — fewer than half as many at five-on-five in fact. In Year 2 as a Leaf, Domi has taken significantly more penalties than he’s drawn, his giveaways have spiked, and he’s mostly struggled at third-line center. — Jonas Siegel
Utah Hockey Club
Lawson Crouse, LW
After back-to-back seasons with 20-plus goals and 40-plus points, Crouse has cratered badly to just 12 goals and 18 points in a supporting role. He’s in the middle of a five-year deal that pays him $4.3 million — third most among Utah forwards — so they need more out of him. But part of it is he’s simply been passed by the team’s youth movement. — James Mirtle
Vancouver Canucks
Arturs Silovs, G
Silovs was a playoff hero for Vancouver last spring and was named Vancouver’s Game 1 starter to open the season. He struggled in that game, however, and promptly ceded the net to Kevin Lankinen. In Silovs’ nine starts, Vancouver accumulated just five of 18 possible points, with both of his wins coming against Chicago. — Thomas Drance
Vegas Golden Knights
Alexander Holtz, RW
Vegas last summer traded for Holtz — the No. 7 draft pick in 2020 — hoping it could unlock some of the offensive potential that made him such a highly touted prospect, but it just didn’t happen. Holtz scored only three goals in 49 games before being reassigned to the AHL, where he spent most of the second half of the season. — Jesse Granger
Washington Capitals
Hendrix Lapierre, C
He hasn’t played an NHL game since December, but Lapierre is still the choice. He started the season as Washington’s third-line center but couldn’t hold onto the job. Ideally, he’d have been part of the Caps’ success, and he hasn’t come close. — Sean Gentille
Winnipeg Jets
Logan Stanley, LHD
Winnipeg hasn’t had a lot of disappointments this season. The Jets have been at or near the top of the standings all season and are only 2 points away from surpassing the team record of 114 points set in 2017-18. So, in a world where even the “most disappointing” Jets player is not all that disappointing, who fits the bill? Dylan DeMelo’s play has taken a gentle step back. Haydn Fleury started well but struggled in top-four minutes. Ultimately, Stanley wins this unwanted prize by virtue of his 17 minor penalties while being out-chanced and outscored at five-on-five despite a largely sheltered third-pairing role. — Murat Ates
(Top photos of Kirby Dach and Chris Kreider: Minas Panagiotakis / Getty Images and Danny Wild / Imagn Images)
