In Canada and the United States, hockey is more than a sport. NHL franchises are valued in the hundreds of millions, television rights deals are breaking records, and the 2025-26 salary cap has reached $95.5 million per team, the highest figure in league history. Behind these numbers lies a financial system far more complex than a single paycheck: structured contracts, signing bonuses, cap accounting mechanisms, and endorsement deals all shape what a professional hockey player actually earns over a career.
What makes up an NHL player’s salary?
Reading an NHL salary requires understanding three distinct components: base salary, signing bonuses, and cap hit. Each plays a different role in how a player is compensated and how his contract weighs on his team’s payroll.
Contractual earnings: base salary, bonuses, and cap hit
Every NHL contract includes a base salary, the guaranteed amount paid each season, alongside signing bonuses, which are lump-sum payments typically concentrated in the early years of the deal. This front-loading structure creates a significant gap between what a player actually receives in a given season and what his contract costs the team on paper.
That paper cost is the cap hit: the average annual value (AAV) of the contract, calculated by dividing the total contract value (base salary + bonuses) by the number of years. The cap hit is the figure that counts against a team’s salary cap each season, regardless of how payments are distributed year to year. Leon Draisaitl illustrates this perfectly: his base salary in 2025-26 is $1,000,000, yet his cap hit is $14,000,000, the average of his eight-year, $112 million deal with the Edmonton Oilers.
Certain contracts also include performance bonuses, paid when a player meets specific statistical thresholds (goals, assists, games played). Under the collective bargaining agreement (CBA), these bonuses are restricted to three categories: players on entry-level contracts, veterans aged 35 and over signing a one-year deal, and players returning from a long-term injury with 400 or more NHL games played.
The salary cap and how team payrolls work
The salary cap sets the maximum amount each of the 32 NHL franchises can allocate to their active roster in a given season. It is governed by the CBA between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA), and calculated from hockey-related revenue (HRR), split equally between owners and players at 50/50. For 2025-26, the cap ceiling sits at $95.5 million, with a salary floor of $70.6 million that every franchise must meet.
This revenue-sharing structure also determines what players actually receive in their bank accounts each season, through a mechanism called escrow. At the start of each season, the league withholds a percentage of every player’s salary as a buffer. If total league revenues fall short of projections, the withheld amount covers the shortfall and is not returned. If revenues meet or exceed projections, the escrow is paid back in full. During the COVID-19 seasons, escrow deductions were particularly significant, as players absorbed a share of the revenue losses tied to games played without fans.
From the team’s perspective, the salary cap constrains how that same revenue is allocated across the roster. A team’s payroll corresponds to the sum of cap hits for all players under an NHL contract, whether they play or not. It covers four categories:
- Active roster players (the 23 dressed each game night)
- Players placed on long-term injured reserve (LTIR)
- Players assigned to the AHL who remain under an NHL contract
- Retained salaries from trades: when a team trades a player and absorbs part of his cap hit to facilitate the deal, that retained amount continues to count against their active cap
That ceiling applies only to the active roster. LTIR contracts are excluded from the calculation: once a player is placed on long-term injured reserve, his cap hit is removed, freeing space to sign replacements. Retained salaries from trades, however, remain in the active cap and reduce the franchise’s available room. The LTIR exception, by contrast, offers more flexibility: the Florida Panthers used it aggressively during their 2024 Stanley Cup run to sign key reinforcements while managing an already loaded payroll.
The table below shows the ten franchises with the highest total payroll committed for 2025-26, across all contracts:
| Rank | Team | Total payroll (cap hits) |
| 1 | Vegas Golden Knights | $131,767,659 |
| 2 | Florida Panthers | $122,871,665 |
| 3 | Los Angeles Kings | $119,746,191 |
| 4 | St. Louis Blues | $118,591,374 |
| 5 | New York Islanders | $118,484,166 |
| 6 | Tampa Bay Lightning | $116,953,582 |
| 7 | New Jersey Devils | $116,184,999 |
| 8 | Dallas Stars | $115,366,667 |
| 9 | Washington Capitals | $115,109,999 |
| 10 | Montreal Canadiens | $115,036,665 |
These totals exceed the $95.5 million cap because they include all contracts under the NHL umbrella, including LTIR players and those assigned to the AHL.
How NHL players make money off the ice
Beyond their contract, NHL players generate revenue through three main channels.
Equipment manufacturers are the first source. The majority of NHL players receive payments from brands such as Bauer, CCM, and Warrior in exchange for using their gear on the ice. Superstars negotiate multi-year deals worth several million dollars, while depth players typically receive equipment sponsorships with modest financial value.
The second channel is advertising partnerships. Players participate in brand campaigns, social media sponsored content, commercial shoots, and promotional events. In Canada, hockey generates media exposure comparable to what football produces in Europe, which makes these partnerships particularly valuable for sponsors. Connor McDavid and Nathan MacKinnon, as the two most recognizable players in the league, each earn several million dollars per year through endorsements alone. The NHL has also built official sports betting partnerships in recent years, and dedicated betting review platforms have emerged to help fans navigate and compare the options tied to this ecosystem.
The third channel covers entrepreneurial activity. Investments in real estate, minority stakes in sports franchises, and business ventures have become increasingly common among active players and those approaching the end of their careers.
For depth players and callups near the league minimum, these additional streams remain marginal. For the marquee names of the NHL, they represent a meaningful share of total annual income.
How and when do NHL players get paid?
NHL contracts run from July 1 to June 30 of the following year. Base salaries are paid in bi-weekly installments across the regular season, typically over 26 pay periods running from October through April. Signing bonuses, by contrast, are paid in lump sums on July 1 of each contract year, which explains why so many contracts are structured with low base salaries and large bonuses: players receive the bulk of their money at the start of the hockey year, well before the regular season begins.
Playoff games are not covered by the base contract. NHL players do not receive a separate salary for playing in the postseason. Instead, the league sets aside a playoff bonus pool distributed to each participating team based on how far they advance. Under the new CBA ratified in July 2025, the playoff fund received a substantial $10 million increase and will grow by $2 million every season thereafter.
From the league minimum to the biggest contracts in NHL history
NHL salaries span an enormous range, from the legislated minimum to nine-figure deals that reset the market each time they are signed.
The league minimum, entry-level contracts and salary tiers
The NHL minimum salary for 2025-26 is $775,000, a figure set under the current CBA through the end of this season. Under the new CBA taking effect in 2026-27, the minimum rises to $850,000 and will reach $1,000,000 by 2029-30. Players entering the league under 25 sign an entry-level contract (ELC), capped at $975,000 base salary per year. Beyond that threshold, salaries vary based on the player’s role, experience, and market value at the time of signing.
| Metric | Amount |
| League minimum (2025-26) | $775,000 |
| Entry-level contract (ELC) max base | $975,000 |
| League average | ~$3,500,000 |
| Highest cap hit (Draisaitl) | $14,000,000 |
The league average of $3.5 million is skewed upward by a small number of elite contracts. According to PuckPedia data for 2023-24, only 329 players out of 793 (41.5%) earned above the league average.
The highest-paid NHL players in 2025-26
The table below lists the ten players with the highest cap hit for the 2025-26 season. The base salary and bonuses columns illustrate the gap between what each player actually receives that season and what his contract costs the team on paper.
| Player | Team | Base salary | Bonuses | Cap hit |
| Leon Draisaitl | Edmonton Oilers | $1,000,000 | $15,500,000 | $14,000,000 |
| Auston Matthews | Toronto Maple Leafs | $775,000 | $14,425,000 | $13,250,000 |
| Nathan MacKinnon | Colorado Avalanche | $800,000 | $15,250,000 | $12,600,000 |
| Connor McDavid | Edmonton Oilers | $3,000,000 | $7,000,000 | $12,500,000 |
| Mikko Rantanen | Dallas Stars | $9,400,000 | $5,600,000 | $12,000,000 |
| Mitch Marner | Vegas Golden Knights | $775,000 | $14,225,000 | $12,000,000 |
| Elias Pettersson | Vancouver Canucks | $4,500,000 | $10,000,000 | $11,600,000 |
| Igor Shesterkin | New York Rangers | $775,000 | $15,050,000 | $11,500,000 |
| Erik Karlsson | Pittsburgh Penguins | $4,000,000 | $5,000,000 | $11,500,000 |
| William Nylander | Toronto Maple Leafs | $3,500,000 | $10,000,000 | $11,500,000 |
The record for the richest contract in NHL history belongs to Kirill Kaprizov of the Minnesota Wild, who signed an eight-year, $136 million extension in September 2025, beginning with the 2026-27 season. At $17 million AAV, his deal surpasses Draisaitl’s $14 million and sets a new ceiling for what a franchise player can command under the rising salary cap.
