5 NHL players you won't believe are still under contract
By Nick Villano
2. Bryan Little
Cap Hit: $5.29 million
Contract Ends: 2024
This contract has been in long-term injured reserve limbo for a very long time. He hasn't played a game since before the pandemic. That is either four or 30 years ago. We can't really tell. However, Bryan Little has been away from the NHL for a very long time.
Little played his last game November 5, 2019. He was hit in the side of the head by a shot 12 minutes into the game. That was his second concussion in a couple of months, and that was the end. He was with the Winnipeg Jets at the time, but they traded his contract to the Coyotes along with prospect Nathan Smith in 2022. It got the Jets a fourth-round pick in the NHL Draft.
Technically, Little is one of four players still active who was drafted by the Atlanta Thrashers. The other players (Blake Wheeler, Evander Kane, and Zach Bogosian) are at least playing hockey. Little hasn't touched the ice since 2019.
The Jets made the very strange decision to sign Little, who was about to turn 30 years old, to a six-year contract extension. It was incredibly risky. It ended how most of us assumed. While nobody wants to predict concussion issues, injuries are pretty easy to see coming for a player who plays the game like Little. He was a nose-to-the-grindstone player who never took a shift off.