One of Bill Simmons’ running gags is to identify players whose value increases because their enormous, once-albatross contracts are on the verge of expiration. In particular, he loved to refer to “Theo Ratliff’s Expiring Contract" rather than Ratliff himself.

After making a few dopey fake trade ideas with the guys at Hockee Night, it dawned on me that there might be a lot of Theo Ratliffs in the NHL.

So, after the jump, let’s take a look at whether or not your team employs a Ratliff (or two).

Please note: Theo Ratliff wasn’t an elite player so keep in mind this isn’t a comprehensive list of expiring contracts. Instead, it’s a list of guys who would normally not have much trade value but do because their cap hits will evaporate after this season.

Cap hits in parenthesis

Anaheim

Saku Koivu ($3,250,000)

Atlanta

Slava Kozlov ($3,666,666)
Pavel Kubina ($5,000,000)
Kari Lehtonen ($3,000,000)

Boston

Derek Morris ($3,300,000)

Buffalo

No one expiring above Toni Lydman ($2,875,000)

Calgary

Olli Jokinen ($5,250,000)

You’d assume he wouldn’t make this list, but the Calgary bloggers hate him enough (and his cap hit’s large enough) that he might be appropriate.

Chicago

This is a team desperate to receive expiring contracts, not get rid of them.

Colorado

Brett Clark ($3,500,000)
Ruslan Salei ($3,025,000)
Adam Foote ($3,000,000)

Basically, half the Avs’ defense is dead weight waiting to be moved. Maybe they should be called the Ratliff-lanche?

Columbus

Fredrik “Matthew” Modin ($3,250,000)

Dallas

Mike Modano ($3,450,000)
Marty Turco ($5,700,000)

Trading team hero Modano might be out of the question, but Turco? It’s unclear if the Stars consider him their goalie of the future …

Detroit

Nope.

Edmonton

Not really.

Florida

No.

Los Angeles

Alex Frolov ($2,900,000)

You’d think he wouldn’t make sense here, but he might.

Minnesota

Kim Johnsson ($4,850,000)

Can you really be disappointed in a guy named Kim?

Montreal

No.

Nashville

Nope.

New Jersey

Not quite.

New York Islanders

Andy Sutton ($3,000,000)

Good luck trading him. Too bad Alexei Yashin’s buyout won’t expire until 2015 …

New York Rangers

Hahahaha.

Ottawa

No.

Philadelphia

Mike Rathje ($3,500,000) edit: It's quite possible that Rathje's expiring contract cannot even be traded since he's been on the long term IR. (thanks to Joe of Gross Misconduct for pointing that out)

Phoenix

Nope.

Pittsburgh

There are none.

San Jose

Not unless you think very little of Rob Blake ($4,000,0000).

St. Louis

Paul Kariya ($6,000,000)

Kariya never gets any consideration for being the league’s most overpaid player, but maybe he should.

Tampa Bay

No.

Toronto

Vesa Toskala ($4,000,000)
Mike Van Ryn ($2,900,000)

In Brian Burke’s dreams (when he’s not imaging Kevin Lowe’s fiery death and drafting Brayden Schenn).

Vancouver

Pavol Demitra ($4,000,000)

Washington

Jose Theodore ($4,500,000)

Sorry, George McPhee, no matter how much you wish Nylander’s contract would expire this year, it won’t.

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