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.