Avalanche Forward Nathan MacKinnon Makes History With Latest Contract
By Jim Lynch
Nathan MacKinnon is technically still the most underpaid player in the entire NHL. At least he will be until the end of the 2022-23 season when the contract extension he signed with the Colorado Avalanche kicks in.
MacKinnon agreed to a massive eight-year contract with the Avalanche on Sept. 20, 2022. The deal will carry a $12.6 million AAV and will give MacKinnon $100.8 million over the course of the eight seasons, making him the highest-paid player in the NHL.
After this season, MacKinnon will go from being the most underpaid player in the league to being the highest-paid player in the league, which is not a bad change when you consider he also just won the Stanley Cup.
MacKinnon signed his current contract with the Avalanche on Jul. 8, 2016. The deal at the time gave him $44,100,000 over the course of seven seasons carrying a $6.3 million AAV. MacKinnon’s new contract will feature a no-move clause, allowing him to spend the rest of his career in Colorado, which he wants to do.
"“I just wanted to be here for the rest of my career and hopefully I get another deal after this, too.”– Nathan MacKinnon via ESPN"
Colorado Avalanche and Nathan MacKinnon make history with the latest contract agreement
The Avalanche now have Nathan MacKinnon for the foreseeable future. Obviously, the team will run into some cap issues when current contracts of guys like Bowen Byram, J.T. Compher and Evan Rodrigues are up, but this is a move that will keep the Avalanche competitive for a long time with MacKinnon on the roster.
There is an argument to be made that MacKinnon is still an underpaid player. If he had hit free agency there is a good chance some team would have offered him north of 13 or 14 million to join their team, and this just opens the door up even more to question what a guy like Auston Matthews could make when his contract is up.
Check out MacKinnon’s stats over the course of his career:
One important thing to note for this deal. No team has won a Stanley Cup or even had a team make it to the Stanley Cup Final with a player making north of ten million dollars. Some team is bound to break that stat at some point, and it might as well be Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche.
The Avalanche start their regular season on Oct. 12, 2022 at home against the Chicago Blackhawks.