The most expensive contract on every NHL team right now

The NHL is filled with expensive contracts. With the salary cap entering the 2022-23 NHL season set at $82.5 million, teams have to be smart with how they use their money to succeed.

So far, no NHL team has won a Stanley Cup with a player who was signed to a deal worth more than $10 million dollars, and with the increases in the salary cap that we have seen in the past, teams will want to be that first group to win with a player making north of ten million.

The 2022 offseason saw a lot of players sign on big deals. Matthew Barzal signed for $9.15 million in New York and Jason Robertson signed for $7.75 million in Dallas.

Teams are signing their players to bigger deals than before, paying off on the ice for teams that make smart signings.

The most expensive contract on every NHL team in 2022

This list changes often. The player in this spot right now for some teams already won’t be on the list when the 2022-23 NHL season comes around thanks to extensions that have already been made or based off the fact that this is the final year of their deal.

Let’s take a look at the highest-paid player on every NHL team. With the NHL being composed of 32 teams, some of these players and organizations are in drastically different positions. Their highest-paid players are hopefully the best player on the roster, but going through the list, I can’t say that is always the case.

Anaheim Ducks

The Ducks’ highest-paid player is a newcomer to the team from this past offseason. John Klingberg holds the title in Anaheim. Klingberg makes $7 million dollars thanks to a contract he signed this past season that brought him to Anaheim.

Klingberg signed a one-year $7 million dollar contract after the start of free agency. The deal made him a Duck, but it might not keep him here past this season considering he will be without a contract by the end of the year.

After Klingberg, the next two most expensive contracts belong to Cam Fowler and John Gibson. Fowler makes $6.5 million while Gibson makes $6.4 million, although Gibson is signed through 2026-27, one more year than Fowler.

The most expensive contract in Anaheim will probably change after this season. Players like Trevor Zebras and Troy Terry will each be looking for new deals, and pay raises considering how good they were last season. Depending on how this year goes, the Ducks could be looking at some expensive contracts on the books for 2023.

Arizona Coyotes

Next up on the list is a player who will be stuck on a bad team for a while. Clayton Keller has the most expensive contract in Arizona.

Keller is signed through the 2027-28 season at $7.15 million. The former seventh-overall pick from 2016 has spent his entire career in Arizona thus far, and that probably won’t change anytime soon.

Considering the rebuilding position the Coyotes are in, it is hard to imagine that any player will be paid higher in Arizona than Keller so this is a spot he could hole for the next few years.

Behind Keller, Nick Schmaltz makes $5.85 million while Andrew Ladd makes $5.5 million. Schmaltz and Keller both have a lot of good hockey ahead of them, and I could see the team trying to take on another contract like Ladd’s this season.

Buffalo Sabres

The Buffalo Sabres do not have that many expensive contracts on the books for the 2022-23 NHL season. They have no one making over 10 million dollars which is for the best, but the player with the most expensive deal is 30 years old.

Jeff Skinner has been playing with the Buffalo Sabres since the 2018-19 NHL season. He signed his current deal with the Sabres on Jun. 7, 2019, a deal that would last for eight years and pay Skinner $72 million.

Skinner has the highest cap hit in Buffalo with a $9 million dollar cap hit. He most likely will remain the highest-paid player in Buffalo although a new player will enter the number two spot when Tage Thompson’s contract extension kicks in at the end of the season.

Skinner put up 63 points in 80 games last season with the Sabres, including 33 goals. He is currently the only Sabre with a no-movement clause on his contract.

Calgary Flames

Oh, how much things can change in a year. The Calgary Flames’ highest-paid player should have been Johnny Gaudrea or Matthew Tkachuk, but a year later, Stanley Cup Champion Nazem Kadri now leads the Flames with the biggest cap hit for right now.

Kadri signed a $49 million contract this past offseason sending him to Calgary. The deal was signed later than usual for a free agent as big as Kadri, but still the deal is signed. Kadri has a cap hit of $7 million, the highest on the team. However, that will be replaced next season when Jonathan Huberdeau’s new contract kicks in.

Seeing someone like Nazem Kadri get paid big is a big win. He has worked so hard to get where he is right now in the game and is just coming off winning a cup. Last season, he scored 28 goals in 71 games and registered 81 points overall.

Carolina Hurricanes

The Hurricanes have been very smart with their money so far. Their highest-paid player is 25-year-old Sebastian Aho who the team drafted in the second round in 2015. Aho put up 81 points last season and has registered 182 goals in 445 games so far in the NHL.

While the Hurricanes have not gotten it done in the playoffs just yet, Aho has been one of their brighter stars in the postseason as he has 46 points in 48 playoff games.

Aho has a cap hit of $8.46 million for the next two years keeping him the highest-paid player on the team for now. Some of the other players close to him cap wise include Andrei Svechnikov and Max Pacioretty, each of whom make north of seven million.

Chicago Blackhawks

The highest-paid players in Chicago have been known for a long time. Patrick Kane and Jonathan Toews have been making 10.5 million a season each since winning their third Stanley Cup in 2015. Things have not gone as well on the ice since getting those contracts.

Toews and Kane are entering the final year of their matching deals. While they might make the most money on the team right now, that won’t be the case next season as neither currently has a deal in place to stay in Chicago.

Seth Jones has the third biggest contract with a cap hit of $9.5 million. He will be the new player on this list for the foreseeable future unless Patrick Kane decides to stay in Chicago and keeps demanding a contract north of 10 million.

Chicago’s next biggest contract outside of the big three is Tyler Johnson who is owed $5 million for the next two seasons.

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche are a team that needs no introduction coming off their Stanley Cup Championship. However, you might not know who the highest-paid player on the team currently is.

The largest cap hit for the Avalanche actually belongs to Mikko Rantanen entering the 2022-23 NHL season. Next up behind him is Cale Makar. Rantanen makes $9.25 a year while Makar is making just $9 million.

The player everyone had to be thinking of for the Avalanche is Nathan MacKinnon, who recently signed a contract extension making him the highest-paid player in the NHL. Considering his deal doesn’t kick in till the 2023-24 NHL season, Rantanen is still technically the highest-paid player on the team.

This spot will belong to MacKinnon next season and will remain his for the foreseeable future.

Columbus Blue Jackets

One of the biggest additions of the 2022 offseason is next up on the list here. Johnny Gaudreau has the biggest contract for the Columbus Blue Jackets.

This past offseason the 29-year-old signed a massive deal with the Jackets keeping him with the team through the 2028-29 season. Each year he will make $9.75 million. He has the largest cap hit on the team, but there are a few players close behind him.

Zach Werenski makes $9.583 million a season, very close behind Gaudreau. Plus, Patrick Laine and Jakub Voracek both make north of 8 million as well. The Jackets have a lot of guys making a lot of money, but Gaudreau is at the top.

Seeing how Gaudreau does this upcoming season with the Blue Jackets will be interesting. Last season with the Calgary Flames he registered 40 goals and had 75 assists with one of the best lines in hockey.

Dallas Stars

Jason Robertson recently signed a contract keeping him with the Dallas Stars this season. He was one of the best players on the team last season, but he is not the highest paid. That honor belongs to Tyler Seguin.

Tyler Seguin has a cap hit of $9.85 million, followed by Jamie Benn with a cap hit of $9.5 million. The two Stars are signed for at least the next three seasons, Benn signed through 2024-25 and Seguins signed through 2026-27.

The Stars are a team trying to compete for the playoffs and unfortunately having Seguin be the highest-paid player will not help their cause in the next few years. In 81 games last season he registered just 49 points.

It will be a long time before someone besides Tyler Seguin is the highest-paid player in Dallas, that is unless the Stars manage to get him traded at some point.

Detroit Red Wings

This is one of the smallest contracts to be included on the list, which makes sense considering Detroit has been rebuilding for a number of years. The highest-paid player for the Red Wings is their captain Dylan Larkin.

Larkin’s deal carries a cap hit of $6.1 million, the largest on the team. While he is only signed through the end of this season, he could stay in this spot for a long time.

You would think the Red Wings will work to extend Larkin’s deal past this upcoming season. He could be looking at a pay raise to remain the face of the franchise in Detroit.

The next highest-paid player for the Red Wings is Andrew Copp who signed this offseason on a five-year deal with a $5.625 million AAV.

Edmonton Oilers

Next up is a player who needs no introduction. Connor McDavid is the highest-paid player on the Edmonton Oilers, and until next season, the entire NHL.

McDavid’s contract carries an AAV of $12.5 million. The 25-year-old makes that through the 2025-26 season at which that point he will be a free agent.

McDavid is the best player in the entire NHL. His skill makes him unmatched across the entire league, and the fact that he is the highest-paid player on this team by three million makes sense.

The Oilers’ other top contracts belong to Leon Draisaitl and Darnell Nurse.

The Oilers will need McDavid to lead the charge again this upcoming season if they are going to get back to the Conference Final.

Florida Panthers

The highest-paid player on the Florida Panthers belongs to Alexsander Barkov. The Panthers captain makes ten million dollars a season thanks to a contract he signed in October of 2021.

This is Barkov’s first year of the contract being in place. Up to this point he carried an AAV of $5.9 million thanks to a six-year deal, he signed in 2016 under then-general manager Dale Tallon.

Barkov was drafted second overall in 2013 by the Florida Panthers and has some pretty big highlight-reel goals throughout his career.

This past season Barkov put up 88 points in 67 games with the Panthers. During the playoffs, he also scored seven points in the Panthers’ ten games.

Los Angeles Kings

A two-time Stanley Cup Champion defenseman holds the title of the highest-paid goaltender for the LA Kings. Drew Doughty has the biggest contract in Los Angeles.

Doughty is signed through the 2026-27 season at $11 million a season. He signed this deal in 2018 worth $88 million dollars and is just hitting the halfway point of the deal.

The 32-year-old has been the Kings’ top defenseman for several years. He has played over 1000 games for the Kings putting up 567 points during that time. Last season he had seven goals in 39 games before his season ended early due to an injury.

The Kings and Doughty will definitely be working on getting back into the playoffs again this season.

Minnesota Wild

Kirill Kaprizov has the biggest contract on the Minnesota Wild. Kaprizov’s current deal carries an AAV of $9 million, the right price for the star winger.

Kaprivoz has only played two years in the NHL, yet the Wild already know they have an excellent forward on their team. In 2021-22, Kapriov registered 47 goals in 81 games and had 108 points on the year. In their round-one series against the St. Louis Blues, Kaprizov registered seven goals in six games.

Kaprizov is an absolute game-changer for the Wild, and he will continue to shine as this contract ages. The 25-year-old has plenty of great hockey ahead of him.

The Wild’s next most expensive contract belongs to Jared Spurgeon who makes $7.575 a season, but to be fair, the two contracts on everyone’s minds belong to Parise and Suter who are still costing the team over $12 million of cap space combined for the next three years.

Montreal Canadiens

The Montreal Canadiens are in an interesting position compared to other teams, as their highest-paid contract is actually for a player on long-term injury reserve.

Carey Price has a contract with the great AAV on the team. His deal carries an AAV of $10.5 million and will be through the 2025-26 NHL season. Considering we do not know whether Price will play again in the NHL, the next biggest contract on the team belongs to Nick Suzuki.

Suzuki is signed through the 2029-30 season and has a cap hit of $7.875 million. Considering he is just a year removed from putting up 41 points in 56 games, this is a big move for the Canadiens to lock in on a young forward.

Some of the other big contracts on this team belong to Brendan Gallagher and Sean Monahan who each make over six million dollars.

Nashville Predators

The Nashville Predators’ top contract belongs to their captain, like a few other teams on this list. Roman Josi has the most expensive contract on the Nashville Predators.

Josi is signed through the 2027-28 NHL season on a deal worth $9.059 million AAV. His current deal makes him the highest-paid player by over half a million dollars.

The next most expensive contract belongs to Filip Forsberg who makes $8.5 million a season. The Preds also have two additional players making $8 million in Matt Duchene and Ryan Johansen.

Rosi was a finalist for the Norris Trophy in 2022 after scoring 96 points in 80 games for the Preds.

New Jersey Devils

Like the Nashville Predators, the New Jersey Devils’ top contract belongs to a defenseman. Dougie Hamilton carries the biggest AAV on the Devils. Hamilton signed a massive seven-year $63 million deal in 2021 bringing him to New Jersey.

The contract includes a no-movement clause as well as a modified no-trade clause during the final three years of the contract. Hamilton’s contract carries an AAV of $9 million a season. This past season he put up 30 points in his first year with the Devils playing in 62 games.

Hamilton has played for the Boston Bruins, Calgary Flames and Carolina Hurricanes before signing with the Devils. He has playoff experience having played in 54 games and is a critical part of the Devils’ blue line.

The next biggest contract on the books for the Devils belongs to Jack Hughes and Nico Hischier. Both forwards make north of seven million, with Hughes leading the charge with a cap hit of $8 million a season. This team has many contracts to work on before the 2023-24 NHL season.

While no one will replace Hamilton as the highest-paid player on this team, the Devils need to re-sign Jesper Bratt, Miles Wood and Yegor Sharangovich to name a few.

New York Islanders

There technically is a tie for the highest-paid player for the New York Islanders, but to be fair, the tie won’t last long.

Mathew Barzal and Anders Lee each have an AAV of seven million dollars for the upcoming season. However, after this season that will change. Mathew Barzal signed a contract extension keeping him with the Islanders through the 2030-31 season at the beginning of October.  That deal carries an AAV of $9.15 million, making him the highest-paid player on the team.

Barzal scored 15 goals and put up 59 points in 73 games last season for the Islanders. While no one would argue that the 2021-22 NHL season was the best for the Islanders, Barzal still did manage to produce offensively.

This upcoming season will be a big year for Barzal and the Islanders and I can’t wait to see if he can live up to this contract with the Islanders.

Some of the other big contracts in New York belong to Brock Nelson and Ryan Pulock who each make north of six million. The other New York team has a very different salary cap situation.

New York Rangers

The New York Rangers’ highest-paid player is someone that a lot of fans know: Artemi Panarin.

Panarin is signed through the 2026-27 season with a contract giving him $11.642 million a season. Since coming into the NHL, he has been one of the best players in the league putting up 569 points in 508 games, including 96 this past season in 75 games.

Panarin has been an electric piece of the Rangers since joining in 2019. The team is lucky he chose to come here in free agency. Since being in the league, there has been just one season where he wasn’t in the playoffs if you include the 2020 play-in as a playoff series.

Some of the other high-paid players in New York include Mika Zibanejad who makes $8.5 million and Adam Fox who makes $9.5 million. The Rangers also have some big young stars like Filip Chytil and Alexis Lafreniere looking for contract extensions for next season.

Artemi Panarin will be 34 when his current contract ends. It will be interesting to see what happens when his contract expires.

Ottawa Senators

The race for the highest-paid player on the Ottawa Senators is tight. Three different players are under a million dollars away from each other when it comes to their contracts cap hit, but the winner is the captain.

Brady Tkachuk is signed through the 2027-28 NHL season. The young Senator was drafted fourth overall in 2018 and is already making significant money in the NHL. Tkachuk carries a $8.2 million dollar cap hit, making him the highest-paid player on this team.

There are a few players really close behind though. Thomas Chabot and Josh Norris are within a couple hundred thousand dollars of Tkachuk. Chabot makes $8 million and Norris makes $7.95 million, so really this is a pretty close contest for the top spot.

All three are very valuable to the Senators, and with all three signed through at least the 2027-28 season, there is no doubt that this core group is set for the future. However, there is one more player that needs to be signed.

Alex DeBrincat is currently on the final year of his current $6.4 million contract he signed with the Blackhawks. Whether or not he re-signs with the Senators or decides to move on elsewhere will be really interesting. He could also demand north of $8 million if he wants to.

Philadelphia Flyers

Sean Couturier has the biggest contract for the Flyers. The center has played his entire career with the Flyers and was drafted eighth overall in 2011. Couturier signed his current contract in 2021.

This is the first year of Couturier’s $62 million dollar deal that he signed over a year ago. The deal carries a cap hit of $7.75 million a season, keeping him in Boston through 2030. The Flyers also gave Couturier a no-movement clause, so it is hard to imagine he will play in a different jersey in his career.

behind Couturier, the Flyers have four players who make north of $6 million. They are Ryan Ellis, Ivan Provorov, James Van Riemsdyk and Kevin Hayes. With the exception of Provorov, everyone else is over the age of 30 so having them make the big bucks for the team might fall into a similar issue as the Dallas Stars.

The Flyers were a team that could have signed Johnny Gaudreau this past offseason, they didn’t because they couldn’t clear enough cap space, one way they could have done that was by trading Van Riemsdyk, or someone else on the roster. This team definitely has a lot of contracts that could hurt them down the line.

Pittsburgh Penguins

The right player is making the most amount of money in Pittsburgh this upcoming season. Sidney Crosby, longtime captain of the team, is the highest-paid player for the Penguins. Sidney Crosby is a once and a generation type of player. He is someone who could have demanded a contract worth over 10 million dollars a long time ago, despite the salary cap.

Yet he decided to sign for just $8.7 million because, well superstition. The Penguins have Crosby signed at $8.7 million for the next three seasons, at which point he will become an unrestricted free agent.

Crosby is someone who needs no introduction. He has won just about every award you can win for a player at his position, and he is someone who wants to get back into the Stanley Cup hunt after multiple first-round exits as of late.

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Some of the other expensive contracts on this team belong to Evgeni Malkin, Jake Guentzel, Jeff Petry and Kris Letang who all make over six million dollars.

San Jose Sharks

The San Jose Sharks are in rebuild mode, yet their salary cap sheet might not be on the same page. The team has a lot of big contracts out there right now for not her gith players, making this rebuild very tough to orchestrate.

The highest-paid player on the team is defenseman Erik Karlsson, who is signed through the 2026-27 season making on average $11.5 million a season. That is definitely not a recipe for success.

Karlsson has been fine the past few years, but he is definitely not the former Norris Trophy winner and player who went to the Conference Final before the Sharks traded for him. The entire team has taken a step back.

Besides Karlsson, the team also has Couture and Hertl making over $8 million a season for the next handful of years as well as Marc-Edouard Vlasic who will make $7 million for the next four years.

Seattle Kraken

The Seattle Kraken are a relatively new team in the NHL, and their highest contract reflects that considering they haven’t had to offer that many bad contracts up to this point.

Compared to most of the other teams in the league, the Kraken’s highest-paid player is really not that highly paid, meaning the team has plenty of room to make deals and plan for the future.

Like the Montreal Canadiens, the most expensive player on the Kraken is a goaltender. Philipp Grubauer has a contract with an AAV of $5.9 million, and he is signed through the 2026-27 NHL season.

Grubauer is an interesting player to be the highest paid in Seattle. While he definitely won’t be in a few years, his contract shows how much the Kraken value goaltending.

Outside of Grubauer, some of the other players with expensive contracts include Jordan Eberle, Jaden Schwartz, Andre Burakovsky and Oliver Bjorkstrand who all make over $5.4 million. The money definitely is spread around in Seattle!

St. Louis Blues

The St. Louis Blues will pass the guard after this season regarding the highest-paid players on the team. Vladimir Tarasenko and Ryan O’Reilly make the most in St. Louis, but that won’t be the case in 2023-24.

After the 2022-23 NHL season, Jordan Kyrou and Robert Thomas’s contract extensions will kick in giving them each $8.125 million a season through the 2030-31 NHL season. However, this season is all about Tarasenko and O’Reilly.

Vladimir Tarasenko has been with the blues since getting drafted 16th overall in 2010, O’Reilly joined the team ahead of their Stanley Cup Championship in 2019. While the two young guys will take over the top spot in 2023, it still belongs to Tarasenko and O’Reilly right now.

The pair are both signed through the end of this season at $7.5 million a year. It is hard to imagine the Blues will want to pay either forward north of $8 million considering both are over the age of 30, but it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

Tampa Bay Lightning

The Tampa Bay Lightning are a championship team. They have won two Stanley Cups and have been to three Stanley Cup Finals in the past three years. Their highest-paid players reflect how good the team is.

There is a three-way tie for the highest-paid player in Tampa Bay. Forwards Nikita Kucherov and Brayden Point as well as goaltender Andrei Vasilevskiy all make $9.5 million dollars, and will through at least the 2026-27 season.

The Lightning also have stars like Steven Stamkos and Mikhail Sergechev also signed for over 8 million, although the Sergechev contract does not kick in until the 2023-24 season. Plus Victor Hedman is signed on one of the best deals in the league making just $7.875 million a year.

The Lightning are a very competitive team that continues to find a way to win, one big reason for that is the shell of good players they have signed at a good price. The 2022-23 season could see even more success for the team.

Toronto Maple Leafs

The Toronto Maple Leafs have one of the most amazing things in the NHL, three players all making over 10 million dollars. Mitch Marner, John Tavares and Auston Matthews all make north of 10 million with Matthews leading the way.

Auston Matthews has a contract that carries a cap hit of $11.64 million a year. That current deal will run through the 2023-24 season, at which point the young center will be an unrestricted free agent.

Matthews scored 60 goals last season, and he is definitely worth his money. It will be interesting to see what kind of salary he will demand when his current deal is up. He cannot sign an extension until this upcoming offseason.

Outside of the big three contracts, Toronto also has Morgan Rielly and William Nylander making over $6.9 million a year.

Vancouver Canucks

The Vancouver Canucks are lucky to have one of their top young stars as their highest-paid player. Quinn Hughes has the most expensive contract on the team in Vancouver.

Hughes makes on average $7.85 million a season, which means he takes up about 9.5 percent of the entire cap hit for the team. He definitely is worth that. Luckily for the team, they won’t have to worry about re-signing Hughes until his contract ends after the 2026-27 season.

The next highest-paid player is Elias Petterson, signed through the 2023-24 season at $7.35 million a year. Pettersson is one of the team’s best forwards and will definitely need to be re-signed. The issue for the future of the team comes on the blue line.

31-year-old defenseman Oliver Ekman-Larsson has the third most expensive contract on the team. He is signed through the 2026-27 season at $7.26 million a year. While Ekman-Larsson is a great defenseman, that money could be used on other players down the line.

How the Canucks decide to go about their salary cap situation down the line will definitely be interesting to see.

Vegas Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights have brought in a lot of stars over the past few seasons, but it is hard to imagine that they will be able to change who their highest-paid player is anytime soon.

Golden Knights center Jack Eichel is the highest-paid player in Vegas. The forward, who was brought in midseason last year in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres, makes $10 million a season for the next four years. Eichel will be a free agent in 2025-26.

The 2022-23 season will be a big opportunity for Eichel to take a step forward with his new team. It will be interesting to see how he does playing for a team trying to win for a full year.

Outside of Eichel, some other big contracts belong to guys like Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo. This team has found a way to really have one of the worst salary cap situations in the entire NHL, so how they move forward will be interesting.

Washington Capitals

I think everyone knows who the highest-paid player for the Washington Capitals is. It is star winger Alex Ovechkin, who is chasing after a big record in the NHL. Ovechkin has a cap hit of $9.5 million a season, and he will be through the 2025-26 NHL season.

The star forward was drafted first overall in 2004 and is still among the best in the league at the age of 37. Ovechkin scored 50 goals last season in 77 games and has scored 780 goals over his career.

He continues to find ways to score a lot of great goals, and he is a great piece to the history of the Washington Capitals. The Capitals also have some other players signed at big numbers.

Niklas Barkstrom makes $9.2 million, John Carlson makes $8 million and Evgeny Kuznetsov makes $7.8 million. The Capitals have their core group of players signed, having played their entire career with the Capitals thus far. This team might not be the same group that went to the Stanley Cup a few years ago, but they still do have a competitive roster.

Winnipeg Jets

Last, and certainly not least, we get to the Winnipeg Jets. Entering the 2022-23 NHL season, the Jets’ highest-paid player is someone who needs no introduction. Blake Wheeler will make $8.25 million a year for the next two seasons.

The Jets do not have that many significant contracts compared to some other teams. They have spread their money around wisely choosing different players to invest in. The amazing thing is this team has star goaltender Connor Hellebuyck signed for just $6.166 million a year.

Wheeler put up 60 points last season in 65 games for the Jets. While the team missed the playoffs, he had a strong season for the team. Some other big contracts belong to guys like Kyle Connor, Mark Scheifele and Joshua Morrissey.

With all 32 teams accounted for, what would you say is the biggest surprise? the Seattle Kraken paying big on a goaltender, the Toronto Maple Leafs paying three players over 10 million or the Tampa Bay Lightning not paying anyone over 10 million? There are a lot of interesting takeaways from the entire list.