The ice covering the rinks of the NHL aren’t the only things players are familiar with that’s cold and hard: So is the cash they get to take home through their often-lucrative playing contracts.
It definitely pays to be an NHL player at any level, but who makes the most money playing hockey, and which teams shell out the most cash in their quests for a Stanley Cup title? Let’s take a look.
Don’t forget: You can watch all of your favorite NHL stars earn their dough live on TV all throughout the 2024-2025 NHL season on DIRECTV!
What is the NHL Salary Cap?
Like many other professional sports leagues, the NHL uses a salary cap system to attempt to maintain a level playing field between the teams. That’s to say, each team has a limit on the amount of money they can put towards paying players and attracting talent each season. That figure currently stands at $83.5 million maximum and $61.7 million minimum.
How Does the NHL Salary Cap Work?
The NHL’s salary cap works similarly to those in other sports leagues, like the NFL and the WNBA. The amount of salary each player is paid each season that contributes to their team’s salary cap maximum is known as the team’s “cap hit.” This is calculated by taking the player’s contract and bonus values, adding them together, then dividing it that number by the number of years their contract is for. The resulting number is the player’s cap hit for the season.
Adding up the full roster’s cap hits gives us the team’s total cap hit. The cap hit is not necessarily a proxy for a team’s payroll, but it does give a good sense of how much per year a team is paying its players and how much wiggle room it has to add new talent.
A team needs to be at or under its salary cap maximum by the end of the year. That means teams can go over the salary cap throughout the year, as long as the total doesn’t exceed the limit by year’s end. Confusing, we know.
The Top 30 Highest-Paid NHL Players in 2024
So, which NHL players have the most lucrative contracts in the sport? Unsurprisingly, some of the sport’s most recognized names are also the ones that appear at the top of the salary charts.
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ star center, Auston Matthews, who led the league in goals and was sixth in total points over the 2023-2024 season, is the highest-paid NHL player right now, taking home $13.2 million per year on average.
Colorado Avalanche center Nathan MacKinnon and the Edmonton Oilers’ Connor McDavid are second and third on the list, raking in an average of $12.6 million and $12.5 million per year, respectively.
Both of these players have led their teams deep into the playoffs in recent years, with MacKinnon’s Av’s securing the Stanley Cup in 2022 and McDavid’s Oilers nearly doing the same in 2023 after a historic near-comeback effort from a 3-0 series deficit against the Florida Panthers, who won it in Game 7.
Here’s the complete list of the top 30 highest-paid players in the NHL right now by cap hit for the 2024-2025 season.
| Rank | Player | Team | Position | Cap Hit/Average Salary |
| 1 | Auston Matthews | Toronto Maple Leafs | Center | $13.2 million |
| 2 | Nathan MacKinnon | Colorado Avalanche | Center | $12.6 million |
| 3 | Connor McDavid | Edmonton Oilers | Center | $12.5 million |
| 4 | Artemi Panarin | New York Rangers | Left Wing | $11.6 million |
| 5 | Elias Pettersson | Vancouver Canucks | Center | $11.6 million |
| 6 | Erik Karlsson | Pittsburgh Penguins | Defenseman | $11.5 million |
| 7 | William Nylander | Toronto Maple Leafs | Center | $11.5 million |
| 8 | David Pastrnak | Boston Bruins | Right Wing | $11.2 million |
| 9 | John Taveres | Toronto Maple Leafs | Center | $11 million |
| 10 | Rasmus Dahlin | Buffalo Sabres | Defenseman | $11 million |
| 11 | Drew Doughty | Minnesota Wild | Defenseman | $11 million |
| 12 | Mitchell Marner | Toronto Maple Leafs | Right Wing | $10.9 million |
| 13 | Jonathan Huberdeau | Calgary Flames | Left Wing | $10.5 million |
| 14 | Jack Eichel | Vegas Golden Knights | Center | $10 million |
| 15 | Aleksander Barkov | Florida Panthers | Center | $10 million |
| 16 | Tyler Seguin | Dallas Stars | Center | $9.8 million |
| 17 | Sebastian Aho | Carolina Hurricanes | Center | $9.7 million |
| 18 | Zach Werenski | Columbus Blue Jackets | Defenseman | $9.5 million |
| 19 | Seth Jones | Chicago Blackhawks | Defenseman | $9.5 million |
| 20 | Charlie McAvoy | Boston Bruins | Defenseman | $9.5 million |
| 21 | Matthew Tkachuk | Florida Panthers | Left Wing | $9.5 million |
| 22 | Adam Fox | New York Rangers | Defenseman | $9.5 million |
| 23 | Nikita Kucherov | Tampa Bay Lightning | Right Wing | $9.5 million |
| 24 | Brayden Point | Tampa Bay Lightning | Center | $9.5 million |
| 25 | Alex Ovechkin | Washington Capitals | Left Wing | $9.5 million |
| 26 | Mark Stone | Vegas Golden Knights | Right Wing | $9.5 million |
| 27 | Jamie Benn | Dallas Stars | Left Wing | $9.5 million |
| 28 | Darnell Nurse | Edmonton Oilers | Defenseman | $9.2 million |
| 29 | Mikko Rantanen | Colorado Avalanche | Center | $9.2 million |
| 30 | Nicklas Backstrom | Washington Capitals | Center | $9.2 million |
Which NHL Teams Have the Highest Cap Hits and Payrolls in 2024?
Those are some lofty figures. How does that impact each team’s salary cap? Let’s take a look. Here is each team’s total spending toward their salary cap, and how much space each has left in 2024.
Keep in mind, a team’s cap hit isn’t exactly the same as their total payroll, since a player’s contribution to the team salary cap is the annual average compensation that player is paid over the course of their multi-year contract.
| Team | Total Cap | Cap Space |
| Washington Capitals | $96 million | $10.2 million |
| Vegas Golden Knights | $91.6 million | $3.6 million |
| Vancouver Canucks | $89.5 million | $1.5 million |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | $89 million | $1 million |
| Montreal Canadiens | $89 million | $2 million |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | $88.8 million | $842,500 |
| New York Islanders | $88 million | $0 |
| Carolina Hurricanes | $87.9 million | $79,913 |
| Detroit Red Wings | $87.2 million | $198,193 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | $87.1 million | $874,228 |
| New York Rangers | $86.8 million | $623,476 |
| St. Louis Blues | $86.7 million | $1.2 million |
| Ottawa Senators | $86.6 million | $484,286 |
| Minnesota Wild | $86.6 million | $756,412 |
| Nashville Predators | $86.5 million | $1.4 million |
| Colorado Avalanche | $85.9 million | $2 million |
| LA Kings | $85.6 million | $496,667 |
| New Jersey Devils | $85.4 million | $976,104 |
| Winnipeg Jets | $85.4 million | $2.5 million |
| Dallas Stars | $84.7 million | $693,758 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | $84.5 million | $5.1 million |
| Edmonton Oilers | $83.5 million | $945,833 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | $81.2 million | $6.1 million |
| Buffalo Sabres | $81 million | $6.9 million |
| Seattle Kraken | $80.8 million | $7.1 million |
| Boston Bruins | $79.3 million | $8.6 million |
| Utah Hockey Club* | $78 million* | $8.9 million* |
| San Jose Sharks | $77.8 million | $10.1 million |
| Calgary Flames | $68 million | $19.9 million |
| Anaheim Ducks | $66.2 million | $21.7 million |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | $63.2 million | $24.7 million |
From a pure payroll perspective, things look more like this:
| Team | Total Cash Payroll |
| Colorado Avalanche | $125.3 million |
| Vancouver Canucks | $120.6 million |
| St. Louis Blues | $120.2 million |
| Vegas Golden Knights | $118.8 million |
| Montreal Canadiens | $116.4 million |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | $115.5 million |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | $113.7 million |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | $111.7 million |
| New Jersey Devils | $111.1 million |
| Washington Capitals | $110.6 million |
| New York Rangers | $109.7 million |
| Winnipeg Jets | $109.1 million |
| Seattle Kraken | $109.1 million |
| Florida Panthers | $107.9 million |
| Edmonton Oilers | $107.4 million |
| Boston Bruins | $107.4 million |
| Calgary Flames | $106.7 million |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | $106.2 million |
| Detroit Red Wings | $104.8 million |
| Dallas Stars | $104.6 million |
| New York Islanders | $103.3 million |
| Ottawa Senators | $103 million |
| Minnesota Wild | $102 million |
| San Jose Sharks | $100.6 million |
| Los Angeles Kings | $100.1 million |
| Philadelphia Flyers | $99.8 million |
| Buffalo Sabres | $97.6 million |
| Nashville Predators | $97.2 million |
| Anaheim Ducks | $95.7 million |
| Carolina Hurricanes | $95.6 million |
| Arizona Coyotes* | $90.5 million* |
| Chicago Blackhawks | $88.9 million |
* Note: The Arizona Coyotes franchise moved to Salt Lake City, Utah this year, and the team is now known as the Utah Hockey Club.
And here’s a look at which teams have the most players in the top 100 highest-paid players, by cap hit:
| Team | Top 100 Players (by cap hit) |
| Carolina Hurricanes | 5 |
| Dallas Stars | 5 |
| Florida Panthers | 5 |
| New Jersey Devils | 5 |
| Ottowa Senators | 5 |
| Tampa Bay Lightning | 5 |
| Toronto Maple Leafs | 5 |
| Vegas Golden Knights | 5 |
| Colorado Avalanche | 4 |
| Detroit Red Wings | 4 |
| Montreal Canadiens | 4 |
| New York Rangers | 4 |
| Vancouver Canucks | 4 |
| Washington Capitals | 4 |
| Boston Bruins | 3 |
| Edmonton Oilers | 3 |
| Nashville Predators | 3 |
| New York Islanders | 3 |
| Pittsburgh Penguins | 3 |
| Winnepeg Jets | 3 |
| Utah Hockey Club | 3 |
| LA Kings | 2 |
| Buffalo Sabres | 2 |
| Minnesota Wild | 2 |
| Seattle Kraken | 2 |
| St. Louis Blues | 2 |
| Columbus Blue Jackets | 1 |
| Calgary Flames | 1 |
| Chicago Blackhawks | 1 |
| Philadelphia Flyers | 1 |
| San Jose Sharks | 1 |
| Anaheim Ducks | 0 |
What is the NHL’s minimum wage?
Currently, the minimum a player must be paid in the NHL is $800,000. These types of salaries are usually seen with AHL players that suit up for their NHL affiliate during the regular season for any number of reasons.
Who Are the Highest-Earning NHL Players Ever?
After this deep dive into current NHL salaries, let’s take a quick look at which hockey players have made the most throughout their careers. You’ll definitely recognize some names on this list, especially if you’ve been following hockey for a while.
| Player | Team | Total Earnings | Seasons |
| Sidney Crosby | Pittsburgh Penguins | $146,890,244 | 17 |
| Alex Ovechkin | Washington Capitals | $128,220,893 | 17 |
| Jaromir Jagr | Retired | $128,139,753 | 24 |
| Evgeni Malkin | Pittsburgh Penguins | $127,270,893 | 16 |
| Shea Weber | Vegas Golden Knights | $126,831,000 | 17 |
| Anze Kopitar | Los Angeles Kings | $115,250,000 | 17 |
| Joe Thornton | Retired | $111,541,561 | 24 |
| Patrick Kane | Chicago Blackhawks | $108,737,195 | 15 |
| Zach Parise | New York Islanders | $108,660,065 | 17 |
| Ryan Suter | Dallas Stars | $107,659,333 | 17 |
Watch NHL Hockey on DIRECTV
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Frequently Asked Questions
Who is the highest-paid NHL player?
Auston Matthews, of the Toronto Maple Leads, is the highest-paid player in the NHL at $13.2 million per year.
Which team has the highest total payroll in the NHL?
The Colorado Avalanche, with a total payroll of $125.3 million.
Who are the top three best-paid players?
The top three highest-paid players in the NHL are Auston Matthews, Nathan MacKinnon and Connor McDavid.
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