Leo Carlsson was in the passenger’s seat when his phone rang this summer with some life-changing news. Good thing his dad, Kenneth, was driving.
Agents Matt and Ryan Keator called to tell Carlsson the Philadelphia Flyers were prepared to sign him to a $90 million offer sheet that would make him the NHL’s highest-paid player at $18 million per year. The proposal changed hockey economics even before the Anaheim Ducks matched it to keep Carlsson, who became the face of rising salaries across the league.
“Players are just thanking me,” he said.
Carlsson raised the bar and then deals for Macklin Celebrini with San Jose and Cale Makar’s record-setter with Colorado pushed it even higher as part of a seismic offseason for hockey economics. With revenues rising and the salary cap getting record increases, it is not hard to envision a future when someone is making $30 million per season.
“Hockey’s kind of overshadowed by those other sports in terms of how players are being paid and stuff like that,” said Celebrini, whose $94 million extension starts in 2027-28. “With more attention, the excitement about the NHL and how much more coverage it’s getting, I think it’s going in the right direction where owners are making more money, players are making money. It’s a good situation for everyone.”
Salaries have come a long way since the cap was put in place
When the cap was put in place in 2005 coming out of a lockout that wiped out an entire season, the ceiling for spending was $39 million for each of the then-30 teams. No player could make more than $7.8 million per year.
The cap more than doubled to $81.5 million by 2019, before the pandemic hit sports hard and stunted growth.
“It was flat — fairly flat — for so long,” Avalanche general manager Joe Sakic said.
There were small increases through 2024, when the cap jumped to $88 million. Going up to $95.5 million last season, $104 million now and $113.5 million for 2027-28 has paved the way for team spending in a big way; the initial cap projection is $127.5 million for 2028-29.
“There’s a lot of money coming into the system because of how we’re coming off of COVID,” said Ron Hainsey, a retired defenseman who’s now the assistant executive director for the NHL Players’ Association. “With so much more money coming into the system over three years, where was it going to go?”
It has been going to players, who get 50% of hockey-related revenue under the collective bargaining agreement.
A year ago, Minnesota signed Kirill Kaprizov to the richest contract in league history at $136 million. Makar got $163.2 million last month, a new top annual salary at $20.4 million starting next season.
“Arguably he should be getting more,” Celebrini said. “Not arguably: He should be getting more. I’m not going to argue that. No one’s arguing that. He should be getting a lot more. Hopefully it just keeps going up for every guy whose deal is expiring.”
Makar won’t be the highest-paid player for very long
Sidney Crosby recalls Pittsburgh teammate Sergei Gonchar being his highest-paid teammate at $5 million during his rookie year more than two decades ago. Makar has set a new baseline, which fellow defenseman Quinn Hughes of Minnesota and NHL MVP Nikita Kucherov of Tampa Bay could surpass when they sign their next deals, even if the total dollars are less because the term is shorter.
“It’s incredible to see where the game is going,” Makar said. “Obviously the salary cap’s going where it is, and guys are going to continue to make more.”
The NFL and NBA each have more than 100 players making more than $20.4 million this season and Major League Baseball has 74 (Nine of the 10 biggest sports contracts by total value in North America belong to MLB players).
Hockey is beginning to catch up.
“When you look at the NHL compared to other leagues, the salary, it’s obviously a lot lower for plenty of different reasons,” said New Jersey’s Jack Hughes, who scored the Olympic gold-medal-winning goal for the U.S. in February. “But the fact that guys are getting paid $20 (million a year) now, that’s a great look for the league.”
The cap plays a factor in how much players can earn
The most an NHL player can make is 20% of the cap, making the maximum annual value $22.7 million in 2027-28. That could become $25.5 million or more when Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews are eligible for new contracts and Matthew Schaefer’s rookie deal with the New York Islanders expires in 2028.
“My agent can worry about that,” Schaefer said. “Math was fun, but it’s not what I’m good at.”
McDavid declined a raise from $12.5 million a year to give Edmonton more room to build a roster that can win the Stanley Cup. Crosby has remained at $8.7 million — his jersey number and birthday and year — since 2008 and hoisted the Cup three times, not feeling pressure to take more money.
“You’re aware of kind of the big picture and how contracts that are signed affect different guys and the market and all that stuff, so I think it’s in the back of your mind,” Crosby said. “But ultimately guys have to do what’s best for themselves and try to balance all that.”
A hard cap and the desire to win makes it a delicate balance. Celebrini said making sure there was enough space for the Sharks to surround him with talent was part of the conversations with agent Pat Brisson and general manager Mike Grier. Celebrini takes up 16.6% of his team’s cap, Carlsson 15.9% and Makar 18%.
No team since 2005 has won the Cup with a player counting over $10 million against a year’s team salaries. With nearly two-thirds of teams with at least one player making that, that is sure to change soon as tides rise across the sport.
“You can’t win without superstars,” said Sakic, who has three in Makar, Nathan MacKinnon and Martin Necas. “We expect our team to be built to win for a long time. Unless you have guys like Cale and Nate on your team, it makes it a lot harder.”
