During the off-season, we saw some rather major deals go down in the NHL free agency. Some huge contracts were signed and while some players sounded like they were worth it at the time, several sounded like they got severely overpriced. Like, seriously, who would pay $10 million a year to Thomas Vanek? Oh right, the Buffalo Sabres. The team that basically got raped in the free agency market of two key players.

I realize that it’s still very early in the season, so we should be withholding judgment until more games are played, but it’s always fun to get a progress report when millions of dollars are involved. Listed below are eight players who received new contracts in between the 2006-07 and 2007-08 NHL seasons. Let’s see how they’re faring so far.

Note: The salary information provided below comes from NHLPA.com. The player stats come from Sportsnet.ca and are accurate as of the morning of October 13, 2007.

Best Performer Thus Far

Daniel Briere, Philadelphia Flyers
At the time, I didn’t think that Briere was worth the $10,000,000 a year that the Flyers were offering him. He did some great things in Buffalo, sure, but $10 million is $10 million dollars! In the three games that the Philadelphia Flyers have played thus far, Danny has scored 4 goals and racked up 3 assists, bringing in a total of 7 points. That works out to 2.33 points per game. He also has a +1 rating. Of those 7 points, 3 came from the Vancouver Canucks massacre on Wednesday.

Biggest Flop

Thomas Vanek, Buffalo Sabres
Like Briere, Vanek also signed a huge contract that would give him $10 million this year. Unlike Briere, Thomas has only chimed in for a single goal in three games played with zero assists and a +/- rating of zero. We all knew that Vanek was too young and too inexperienced. With Briere and Drury out of the picture, you would think that this would provide an opportunity for Vanek to shine. I guess not.

Least Exciting

Sheldon Souray, Edmonton Oilers
I don’t know what Edmonton was thinking. Sheldon is set to make $6,250,000 this year and although he is officially a defenceman, the Oilers were hoping that he would become one of the team’s top scorers, if not the top scorer. The Edmonton Oilers have played five games thus far and Souray only tossed in his first goal — it was a beaut, I must admit — last night against the Canucks. His only other point is a single assist. You can’t completely blame Sheldon for his lack of success, because, well, he’s playing for Edmonton.

Other Notables

How did the rest of the free agent signings go? Here are five more for you to consider:

Todd Bertuzzi, Anaheim Ducks
$4,000,000
6 GP, 1G, 1A, 2PTS, -2

Paul Kariya, St. Louis Blues
$6,000,000
4GP, 0G, 6A, 6PTS, +1

Ryan Smyth, Colorado Avalanche
$7,500,000
4GP, 1G, 1A, 2PTS, 0

Chris Drury, NY Rangers
$7,100,000
4GP, 1G, 3A, 4PTS, +2

Scott Gomez, NY Rangers
$10,000,000
4GP, 1G, 0A, 1PTS, 0