Lee Stempniak – New Jersey Devils – one-year, $850,000 cap hit
In terms of best bang for your buck, I’m not sure there was a better off-season signing than Lee Stempniak.
Stempniak couldn’t land a contract until ~a week before the 2015-16 season and had to settle for $850,000 despite scoring 15 goals in 71 games a year ago and a long history of providing teams with steady play at both ends of the ice.
On a Devils team desperate for offense he played a pivotal role from the word go logging big minutes in all situations while scoring 16 goals and contributing 41 points in 63 games.
Due to his strong play the Devils remained in the playoff hunt a lot longer than anyone could have imagined, and when they started to fall out of the race GM Ray Shero elected to move Stempniak for assets to help improve the team’s future.
So, in essence the Devils signed Stempniak for peanuts at the last second, exceeded expectations for much of the season with Stempniak’s play being a big reason why, and then sold high trading him to Boston for a 2nd and a 4th round pick.