The Top Ten Highest Paid NHL Players Heading Into The 2023-24 Season
The NHL might not have the highest paid athletes in professional sports, but their top players are getting some pretty big checks written to them from year to year. Today, let’s break down the ten highest paid NHL players in the league right now.
Currently, 15 NHL players are carrying a cap hit of $10 million or more, and the number gets even crazier when we talk about players making $9 million or more a season. 37 NHL players are carrying a cap hit of $9 million or higher, that virtually puts at least one $9 million dollar contract on every team, but not every team has one of the highest paid players in the league.
The Top Ten Highest Paid NHL Players Heading Into The 2023-24 Season
10. Jonathan Huberdeau – $10.5 million
Jonathan Huberdeau is first on the list with a contract he signed on Aug. 4, 2022 when he was traded to the Calgary Flames from the Florida Panthers.
This upcoming season will be Huberdeau’s first season of an 8 year $84 million contract that carries a no movement clause for the first six years of the deal.
In 79 games this past season with the Flames Hubderau put up 15 goals and 40 assists. It was not the best first year in Calgary for Huberdeau, but at the age of 30 with eight years to go on this contract he will have a lot of time to have some success.
It is worth noting that Montreal Canadiens goaltender Carey Price also makes $10.5 million a season, but he did not play this past season so considering they are both making the same amount it made more sense to mention Huberdeau.
9. Mitch Marner – $10.903 million
Next up on the list with the ninth highest salary is Mitch Marner of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Marner signed a six year $65.408 million contract with the Toronto Maple Leafs on Sept. 13, 2019. The contract was a nice bridge deal to help get him to his next major contract when he is a UFA at the end of the 2024-25 season at the age of 28.
In 80 games this past season Marner registered 99 points including 30 goals for the Leafs. While the Maple Leafs have not won the Stanley Cup just yet, Marner has been a big part of the team’s regular season success and has constantly been one of their best players.
8. John Tavares $11 million
John Tavares signed his current contract on July 1, 2018 when he joined the Toronto Maple Leafs leaving behind the New York Islanders. Tavares’s contract carried a no movement clause and was worth $77 million over the course of sevens seasons.
In 80 games this past season, the Maple Leafs captain scored 36 goals and registered 80 points. He will be a free agent at the end of the 2024-25 season, so change could be on the horizon for the Maple Leafs and Tavares.
7. Drew Doughty $11 million
Drew Doughty is the first player on the list to have actually won the Stanley Cup. Doughty, the Los Angeles Kings number one defenseman for the past decade, signed a massive 8 year, $88 million contract on July 1, 2018. The deal carried an $11 million cap hit and made Doughty one of the highest paid defenseman at the time.
In 81 games this past season Doughty scored nine goals and registered 52 points, still some really strong numbers from the 33 year old defenseman.
6. David Pastrnak $11.25 million
Like Jonathan Huberdeau, David Pastrnak is just now cracking the top ten list this upcoming season. Pastrnak signed a massive 8 year, $90 million contract with the Bruins on March 2, 2023, during the midst of the Bruins best regular season in NHL history.
Pastrnak starts the eight year contract this year carrying a cap hit of $11.25 million, he also will have a no movement clause. This past season Pastrnak put up 113 points including 61 goals.
5. Erik Karlsson $11.5 million
Next up, we have the highest paid defenseman in the NHL, Erik Karlsson. Karlsson signed a massive contract on Jun. 17, 2019 with the San Jose Sharks. The contract was worth $92 million and was for eight seasons giving him a cap hit of $11.5 million.
Karlsson has since been traded to the Pittsburgh Penguins, and his contract has been retained to lower his cap hit, but that does not change the fact that he is the highest paid defenseman in the NHL. This past season Karlsson put up 101 points including 25 goals with the San Jose Sharks.
4. Auston Matthews $11,640,250
Auston Matthews could very well be back on top of the list very soon. Matthew signed a 5 year, $58 million dollar contract on February 5, 2019, a contract that is now in the final year.
Since signing the deal, Matthews has had some pretty incredible seasons in the NHL, but has only won one playoff round up to this point. This past year Matthews registered 85 points in 74 games. He is the fourth highest paid player in the league, but the most highest paid player on the Maple Leafs.
Toronto has three of the top ten highest paid players in the NHL, the only team with more than one player in the top ten.
3. Artemi Panarin $11,642,857
Artemi Panarin is next up on this list with a 7 year, $81.5 million contract he signed on July 1, 2019 with the New York Rangers. Panarin’s contract carries a no movement clause throughout the entire deal and will be up at the end of the 2025-26 season.
When Panarin signed with the Rangers it drastically changed the course of their rebuild. This past season he registered 92 points including 29 goals.
2. Connor McDavid $12.5 million
Connor McDavid is in second place with an 8 year, $100 million contract he signed on July 5, 2017. This has to be the best second contract a player has ever signed, and the crazy thing is it still feels like McDavid left money on the board for the Oilers to sign more players.
McDavid will be a free agent at the end of the 2025-26 season, when he will be 29 years old. This past season he registered a career best 153 points in 82 games.
1. Nathan MacKinnon $12.6 million
Nathan MacKinnon enters the top spot this season as the highest paid player in the NHL. For a long time now MacKinnon has been known as one of the most under paid players in the NHL, and now he flips the script becoming the highest paid player. This past year in 71 games MacKinnon registered 111 points including 42 goals.
MacKinnon is only the second player in the top ten to have actually won the Stanley Cup, something he and the Avalanche did in 2022, before he signed this massive contract in September of 2022.
MacKinnon’s eight year contract is worth $100.8 million, more than double his last contract with the Avalanche.
It is great to see NHL stars get paid, but it is worth noting this past season was the first year that a team won the Stanley Cup with a contract worth $10 million or more. Jack Eichel and the Vegas Golden Knights were the first team to have a player carry a cap hit of $10 million, so that might show that winning it all with so much money tied up in one player is not the easiest thing to do.