Young Stars Are Making The Most Of Hockey’s Hard Reality

The ten top earners are set to make $118 million combined this season, reflecting a wave of big new contracts but also the stagnation of pay in the sport.

The NHL off-season featured a steady stream of lucrative contracts for the league’s young stars, most prominently the eight-year, $100.8 million extension that 27-year-old center Nathan MacKinnon signed with the Colorado Avalanche two weeks ago. But MacKinnon’s deal doesn’t kick in until next season, and the flood of money pouring in to other up-and-comers—nine additional new contracts worth at least $60 million since mid-July, on top of nine such deals last year—wasn’t enough to sink the NHL’s reigning highest-paid player, Connor McDavid.

For the second straight season and for the fourth time in the last five years, McDavid, the Edmonton Oilers’ 25-year-old captain, is hockey’s top earner, set to make $15.3 million before taxes and agents’ fees. That includes $10.8 million in salary and signing bonus as well as an estimated $4.5 million off the ice from endorsements, memorabilia and other business endeavors.

Combined, the NHL’s ten highest-paid players stand to make $117.7 million this season. That is essentially flat from last year’s $117.2 million, but it is a 26% drop from the $159.5 million of the 2019-20 list, the last season to begin before the pandemic and the high-water mark since Forbes introduced its NHL ranking factoring in off-ice income in 2012-13.

In fact, the total for the top ten has barely budged from 2013-14’s $116.3 million. Meanwhile, during the same stretch, the NFL’s ten highest-paid players have seen their earnings jump 46%, to $489.1 million, and MLB’s 50%, to $377 million. (Forbes hasn’t yet published its 2022-23 earnings list for the NBA, but that league’s top ten doubled their pay from 2013-14 to 2021-22, to $713.8 million.)

NHL players simply can’t attract sponsorships the way other star athletes do. Beyond McDavid and a handful of others like the Washington Capitals’ Alex Ovechkin (an estimated $5 million off the ice), the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews ($3.8 million) and the Pittsburgh Penguins’ Sidney Crosby ($3.5 million), hockey players struggle to crack seven—or even six—figures in endorsements. In fact, of the ten highest earners’ $117.7 million in pay for this season, only $14.7 million is coming off the ice—and seven of the ten will post just $1.4 million combined.

Salaries lag behind the other major North American leagues, too. That’s largely a function of league revenue, with commissioner Gary Bettman saying in June that the NHL had recorded $5.2 billion over the course of the season, less than a third of the $17.2 billion the NFL posted last year, according to Forbes estimates. But it’s also a result of the NHL’s salary-cap system, created in 2005 and tweaked in the subsequent years. For example, Joe Sakic, then a star for the Avalanche, ranked as the world’s ninth-highest-paid athlete on Forbes’ 1997 list across all sports, with $17.8 million in salary. That would easily beat the league-high $13 million the Dallas Stars’ Tyler Seguin is scheduled to make on the ice this season even though league revenue at the time was roughly a fifth of what it is now.

Making matters worse, NHL players are still feeling the effects of the pandemic thanks to an escrow system that ensures the league’s players and team owners equally divide revenue.

In any given season, a portion of players’ paychecks is diverted into an escrow account until the NHL can finish tabulating its income; the money is then returned to the players or surrendered to the owners depending on exactly how much revenue the league collected in all. The problem is that the players racked up a mountain of debt to the owners when Covid-19 kept arenas empty and hammered league revenue. Last season, players had 17.2% of their salaries held in escrow, all of which ended up in the owners’ pockets. This season, the escrow figure is set at a more manageable 10%, but players can once again expect not to see a dime back. The salary and bonus figures included in Forbes’ earnings list reflect that 10% deduction, dropping Seguin, for instance, to $11.7 million in on-ice income.

Players have some reason for optimism. The NHL’s salary cap is up this season for the first time in three years—a $1 million increase, to $82.5 million—and hockey insiders say the league expects a significant cap jump in 2024-25, which would push up salaries. That projection also suggests rising revenue that could wipe out the players’ debt to owners by the end of next season, giving players a shot at recouping some of their escrow money in the future.

And then there is the NHL’s wave of young talent, coming along to supplant Ovechkin and Crosby (who falls off the earnings ranking this season thanks to his modest $2.7 million on the ice). A leaguewide trend has teams promising rising stars huge sums spread over seven or eight years, even before the players hit their primes. MacKinnon, for example, is set to average $12.6 million over the next eight seasons—a record for the NHL’s salary-cap era—and his $16.5 million in 2023-24 salary and bonus could even push him up the total earnings ranking past McDavid, who is scheduled to make $11 million on the ice next year.

“A player can become an unrestricted free agent at 27, so teams want to buy out years of their unrestricted free agency at what they feel will be cap-friendly deals in the future, when the cap goes up,” says Win Hockey Agency’s Matt Keator, who represented New York Rangers defenseman Adam Fox as he signed a seven-year, $66.5 million extension last year. “It’s a win-win.”

THE NHL’S HIGHEST-PAID PLAYERS

#1. $15.3 mil

Connor McDavid

^{AGE: 25 | TEAM: Edmonton Oilers | ON-ICE: $10.8 mil • OFF-ICE: $4.5 mil}

The 25-year-old Edmonton Oilers center finished first in the NHL in points last season, with 123, but missed out on winning a third Hart Trophy as league MVP when the Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews claimed his first. Matthews similarly edged him for the earnings list’s top spot in 2020-21, but McDavid leads the way this year thanks to the NHL’s second-best off-ice figure and third-best on-ice, with his $12 million in salary and bonus reduced to $10.8 million by the escrow adjustment. In March, McDavid added BetMGM to a stable of sponsors that include equipment maker CCM, car dealership network Go Auto and collectibles company Upper Deck.

#2. $14 mil

Alex Ovechkin

^{AGE: 37 | TEAM: Washington Capitals | ON-ICE: $9 mil • OFF-ICE: $5 mil}

Ovechkin was a notable omission from last year’s earnings list, with the five-year, $47.5 million contract he signed that summer committing just $5 million in salary and bonus for 2021-22. This year, though, that figure jumps to $10 million (reduced to $9 million by the escrow adjustment), and the 37-year-old Washington Capitals winger tacks on a league-best endorsement portfolio that includes Coca-Cola, Hublot and Nike. He should draw even more interest from brands as he chases the all-time goals record, with 780 entering this season, 114 behind Wayne Gretzky.

#3. $11.9 mil

Tyler Seguin

^{AGE: 30 | TEAM: Dallas Stars | ON-ICE: $11.7 mil • OFF-ICE: $0.2 mil}

No player will make more on the ice this season than Seguin, who is scheduled to collect $13 million in salary and bonus (before escrow) in the fourth year of an eight-year, $78.8 million contract with the Dallas Stars. The 30-year-old center, coming off a down season in his return from a hip injury, has endorsement deals with brands including Adidas and fragrance house Michel Germain, as well as equity stakes in sports drink maker BioSteel and the Chew Club, which sells dog treats and bones.

#4. $11.7 mil

Artemi Panarin

^{AGE: 30 | TEAM: New York Rangers | ON-ICE: $11.3 mil • OFF-ICE: $0.4 mil}

Panarin posted a career-high 96 points last season, giving him 249 in 186 games since he signed a seven-year, $81.5 million contract with the New York Rangers in 2019. The left wing, who turns 31 this month, counts CCM, EA Sports and Upper Deck as partners.

#5T. $11 mil

Sergei Bobrovsky

^{AGE: 34 | TEAM: Florida Panthers | ON-ICE: $10.8 mil • OFF-ICE: $0.2 mil}

Bobrovsky helped the Florida Panthers claim last season’s Presidents’ Trophy for finishing with the NHL’s best regular-season record. A two-time winner of the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie, most recently in 2016-17, the 34-year-old is in the fourth year of a seven-year, $70 million contract.

#5T. $11 mil

Auston Matthews

^{AGE: 25 | TEAM: Toronto Maple Leafs | ON-ICE: $7.2 mil • OFF-ICE: $3.8 mil}

Matthews is coming off a 60-goal season that earned him a historic Hart Trophy, as only the second U.S.-born player ever to win MVP and the first Maple Leaf to claim the honor since 1955. The ​​25-year-old center ranked no lower than No. 2 on the earnings list over the last three seasons, and he may soon jump back into that territory: He is set to hit free agency in 2024. Matthews, who is flashy on the ice and fashionable off it, is one of the few NHL personalities who have captured the attention of marketers, striking ten partnerships, including recent deals with hat retailer Lids and Edge Theory Labs, which makes a cold-plunge tub. In February, he became the first active NHL player to sign with a betting company, adding Bet99 as a sponsor.

#7T. $10.9 mil

Aleksander Barkov

^{AGE: 27 | TEAM: Florida Panthers | ON-ICE: $10.8 mil • OFF-ICE: $0.1 mil}

Skating alongside Sergei Bobrovsky as the captain of the Panthers, Barkov signed an eight-year, $80 million contract extension last October and is scheduled to make $11 million in signing bonus and just $1 million in salary this season. That uneven structure doesn’t help the 27-year-old center avoid an escrow reduction but does give him protection against a possible lockout in the future. It also carries tax benefits since salaries are taxed wherever players travel but signing bonuses are taxed only in their home state—and Florida doesn’t have a state income tax. Barkov’s sponsors include Upper Deck and Puhdistamo, a supplement brand from his native Finland.

#7T. $10.9 mil

Erik Karlsson

^{AGE: 32 | TEAM: San Jose Sharks | ON-ICE: $10.8 mil • OFF-ICE: $0.1 mil}

Karlsson is in the fourth year of an eight-year, $92 million deal that made him the highest-paid defenseman in league history (as measured by the average annual value of his contract). Since joining the Sharks in a 2018 trade, the 32-year-old hasn’t always lived up to his reputation as a two-time Norris Trophy winner as best defenseman, but he will be a crucial piece for San Jose this season after fellow blueliner Brent Burns was dealt away in July.

#7T. $10.9 mil

Darnell Nurse

^{AGE: 27 | TEAM: Edmonton Oilers | ON-ICE: $10.8 mil • OFF-ICE: $0.1 mil}

Nurse comes from an athletic family: His sister Kia plays for the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury, his cousin Sarah is set to become the first female hockey player to appear on the cover of EA Sports’ NHL video game, and his uncle is former NFL star Donovan McNabb. The 27-year-old defenseman signed an eight-year, $74 million extension with the Oilers in August 2021 and has endorsement deals with Fanatics, equipment manufacturer Warrior and the Chopped Leaf, a Canadian fast-casual restaurant chain.

#10. $10.2 mil

Andrei Vasilevskiy

^{AGE: 28 | TEAM: Tampa Bay Lightning | ON-ICE: $9.9 mil • OFF-ICE: $0.3 mil}

Vasilevskiy missed this list last season but reappears in the third year of an eight-year, $76 million contract. The 28-year-old goaltender, who has made three straight appearances in the Stanley Cup finals with the Tampa Bay Lightning and won the 2018-19 Vezina Trophy, is partnered with brands including equipment manufacturer Bauer and Upper Deck.

METHODOLOGY

The Forbes ranking of the NHL’s highest-paid players reflects on-ice earnings for the 2022-23 season, including base salaries and bonuses. Those figures have been reduced by 10% from the amount specified in players’ contracts, with the assumption that players will not recover the money diverted from their paychecks into escrow this season. Incentives that are based on 2022-23 individual or team performance are not included. Compensation deferred from the 2021-22 season is also omitted.

The off-ice earnings estimates are determined through conversations with industry insiders and reflect annual cash from endorsements, licensing, appearances and memorabilia, as well as businesses operated by the players. Forbes does not include investment income such as interest payments or dividends but does account for payouts from equity stakes athletes have sold.

Forbes does not deduct for taxes or agents’ fees.

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