It has been an offseason of change in the National Hockey League. A rising salary cap comes with higher player salaries, which is something the hockey world needs to get used to. We saw top guys like Auston Matthews, Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, Nathan MacKinnon, Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, and others set the tone ahead of this season. But with Quinn Hughes, and Cale Makar are eligible for contract extensions, those numbers could rise even further.
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We have already seen it with young players like Macklin Celebrini and Leo Carlsson become one-two in terms of highest AAV in the NHL, with Connor Bedard not far behind. A new market was set for defenseman when Bowen Byram got $12.5 million over six years from the Chicago Blackhawks. But it isn’t going to slow down.
The pace car is only going faster and faster in terms of not only what these players will make, but how long their contracts will be. That trend started with Auston Matthews before the flat cap put it on hold. But now players understand the economics of the game even better these days and want more cracks at the piece of the pie.
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On NHL Tonight, Tony Luftman, EJ Hradek, and Cory Schneider discussed the changing market and how it will be the Big Three defenseman of Quinn Hughes, Cale Makar, and Zach Werenski reshaping how players get paid moving forward.
NHLRumors.com Transcriptions
Tony Luftman: “On the topic of setting the market, Bo Byram gets the deal he gets. EJ, as we look at the highest AAV among defensemen, there is Bowen Byram setting the pace.”
EJ Hradek: “Yeah, and listen, good for Bo Byram. I’m a big fan of his, and I’m glad that he got a nice contract extension there, and moves to Chicago and gets an opportunity to really be a number one defenseman, which I think drove him in a lot of ways.
But let’s face it, I mean, Cale Makar and Quinn Hughes are going to drive that market. Cale Makar is also eligible for an extension, so that is something we haven’t talked about. That’s been more quiet. Now they’ve changed their management group a little bit. Chris MacFarland is out. Joe Sakic is back in terms of managing that. I have no information that says that Cale Makar wants to leave Colorado. But again, in another era, maybe that deal would have been done.
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But I think these players are kind of waiting to see maybe where this is going to go, how much money can they get? And they’re under pressure from probably the Players’ Association to make sure that they’re not coming in on too friendly a deal either, because what they say is: the rising tide lifts all boats.”
Cory Schneider: “Yeah, I think it’s also a perfect storm, a crescendo of arguably the three best players in the position: Makar, Quinn Hughes, and then Zach Werenski in a couple years. He’s right down the pipe, are coming up at the same time to reset the market. The guys on that list are great players and very good defensemen.
But I think we could all sit here and say that those three guys are probably the best, and they’re all coming up at once. So I think it’s a chance to really reshape the market that’s already being reshaped by these young star players coming out of their entry level.
I think Nathan McKinnon feels at 13, whatever, and all of a sudden guys are making 19. It’s you’re 50 percent ahead of where I was, and I just signed a year or two ago. So I think guys are going to be leery of signing longer term. If you’re a superstar, they have more power than ever, and they’re leveraging it.
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So why would I sign an eight-year deal when in two years my deal is going to be obsolete, and I could have gotten 50 percent more? So I think guys are being more cautious of that as well.”
Again, no player or player agent wants to hear his client has the best contract in the NHL. Yet somehow the Montreal Canadiens figured it out with their internal salary cap. But those players make up the difference in sponsorship dollars.
However, players no longer want to play it safe with these eight-year deals. When your contract is obsolete in a year or two, why lock in for that long? The NHL will soon become the NFL in terms of which player is next to be the highest-paid player in the league. It happens every offseason in the NFL; that trend is coming to the NHL.
With all the new influx of money coming, just imagine what these players’ salaries will look like in a few years. The market is changing for the better.
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