J.T. Compher is one of the strangest players on the Detroit Red Wings. When he came to Detroit in the 2023-24 season, he was great, performing at over half a point per game as the team's acting second line center. At that time, he seemed to be a solid temporary solution for the position while waiting for the team's other center prospects to develop. Unfortunately, that has been his best season in a Red Wings uniform to date.
Since that first season, he's been paid over $5 million a year to simply exist on the ice. He's done nothing to justify his existence on this roster other than filling in on the penalty kill. This, of course, is fine. There are plenty of players in the NHL who get paid to just be a defensive fourth line forward and play 7-10 minutes with time on the the penalty kill.
The problem is that no defensive forward is paid over $5M per season.
In fact, Compher had the great distinction of owning the lowest "Stuff per 60" rating in the entire league in the 2024-25 season:
One of the most popular insults in hockey is "cardio merchant" - players who don't seem to do a lot of stuff when they're on the ice.
— JFresh (@JFreshHockey) May 5, 2025
It's pretty vibes-based, but just for fun I decided to use A3Z and NHL data to find the players with the least "stuff" per 60 at 5v5 in 2024-25: pic.twitter.com/gsPMXbTYGl
What to do with Compher
The question remains: what can the Red Wings do with Compher? He's not scoring, but he's defending at the rate expected of him. The problem comes from the offensive end of things. He's just not delivering. In his last two seasons, Compher has scored at less than half a point per game while being replaced as the second line center by the likes of Andrew Copp and then-rookie Marco Kasper.
The point is, he's not been good. Certainly not good enough to live up to his contract. He experienced a recent flash after getting an emergency promotion up the lineup, but, even then, it doesn't justify his contract. He's spent the majority of the season doing cardio on the ice. That's not something that can continue if this team has any hope of being competitive.
Death
— The Mexinadian (@The_Mexinadian) March 2, 2026
Taxes
JT Compher Air mailing the puck
So, how does general manager Steve Yzerman fix this? Well, the only way to fix the problem is to remove the problem. There is no contract restructuring in the NHL, so it's impossible to lower his cap hit. Sure, the salary cap is going up, but having a $5 million penalty killer on the fourth line is inexcusable. Meaning your only real option is to move off the contract or buy it out.
Trading the contract is difficult at Compher's current cap hit, but the only way you can get out of it entirely is to add something else with it and expect little in return. That's something Yzerman has done in the past with the likes of Robbie Fabbri and Ville Husso, so it's definitely in the cards. There is also the potential to outright buy out his contract. With two years left on his deal after the 2025-26 season, the team would be looking at a cap hit of $1.5-$1.9 million through the 2029-30 season.
This would be fine for now, but is replacing one Justin Abdelkader buyout with another truly worth it?