30 Highest Paid NHL Players – 2024
October 15, 2024
The NHL isn’t known, as other pro sports leagues are, for awarding its players exorbitantly wealthy contracts. See: Shohei Ohtani, who last off-season inked a $700 million deal with the Los Angeles Dodgers, or Jaylen Brown, who recently signed a five-year contract extension with the Boston Celtics worth $303 million. The NHL has a salary cap, which currently sits at $88 million. A 2020 study that ranked pro sports leagues around the world by average annual player salary clocked the NHL as the 7th most lucrative league, lower than the NBA, MLB, and NFL. But that doesn’t mean that the highest paid NHL players are making a pittance. So who are the highest paid NHL players in 2024? Check out the list below.
Highest Paid NHL Players – 2024
30) Seth Jones, Chicago Blackhawks – $9.5 million
29) Nikita Kucherov, Tampa Bay Lightning – $9.5 million
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
28) Matthew Tkachuk, Florida Panthers – $9.5 million
Forward Matthew Tkachuk has been a big part of the Florida Panthers’ playoff success over the last couple years. He came to Florida via trade from the Calgary Flames, and the Panthers immediately signed him to an eight-year, $76 million contract, making him one of the highest paid NHL players. That investment has paid big-time dividends. With Tkachuk on the squad, the Panthers made just their second-ever Stanley Cup appearance in 2023, and they finished the job the following year with their first Stanley Cup championship in franchise history.
27) Mark Stone, Vegas Golden Knights – $9.5 million
26) Jamie Benn, Dallas Stars – $9.5 million
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
25) Charlie McAvoy, Boston Bruins – $9.5 million
24) Brayden Point, Tampa Bay Lightning – $9.5 million
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
23) Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay Lightning – $9.5 million
22) Alex Ovechkin, Washington Capitals – $9.5 million
Left winger Alex Ovechkin is one of the most prolific scorers in NHL history, so naturally he makes an appearance on the list of the highest paid NHL players. What does his legacy look like? He’s second only to Wayne Gretzky on the list of all time NHL goal scorers (Gretzky’s got 894; Ovechkin, 853), and no NHL player has more power play or overtime goals. His other accolades include an NHL Rookie of the Year award, three MVP awards, and a league-record nine scoring titles. To state that last feat a little more bluntly: in nine of his twenty years in the NHL, he’s led the league in scoring.
Ovechkin, a native of Russia, went pro in 2001. He spent the first four years of his professional career playing in the Russian Superleague before the Washington Capitals selected him as the first overall pick in the 2004 NHL draft. In Washington he’s stayed since then, and the legacy he established for himself during that time is indisputable. In fact, Ovechkin was named one of the 100 best NHL players of all time back in 2017. Back in 2018, he led the Capitals to a Stanley Cup championship, the first—and only, to this point—of his career.
21) Adam Fox, New York Rangers – $9.5 million
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
20) Zachary Werenski, Columbus Blue Jackets – $9.6 million
19) Sebastian Aho, Carolina Hurricanes – $9.75 million
18) Tyler Seguin, Dallas Stars – $9.85 million
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
17) Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida Panthers – $10 million
16) Jack Eichel, Vegas Golden Knights – $10 million
Like highly touted prospects across all sports, Jack Eichel has been under the spotlight since he was a teenager. When he was 17, a New York Times article called him the “new face of American hockey.” He entered the NHL as the second overall pick of the Buffalo Sabres in the 2015 NHL draft. Eichel quickly established himself as an elite offensive player, and the Sabres, wise to that fact, signed him an eight-year, $80 million contract extension before the 2017-18 season. That AAV makes him one of the highest paid NHL players to this day.
But his tenure with the Sabres started to go sour when the team wouldn’t give him the go-ahead he needed to get surgery on a herniated spinal disc (the collective bargaining agreement between the league and the players’ union gives teams discretion over players’ medical care). Eichel expressed his frustration to the media, the relationship between team and player continued to fray, he was stripped of his captainship, and finally, he was shipped off to the Vegas Golden Knights.
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
The Golden Knights, unlike the Sabres, gave Eichel their blessing to get the surgery he wanted, and he made his debut with the team in February 2022. The Golden Knights missed the playoffs that year, but they stormed back in 2023, beating the Florida Panthers to win their first Stanley Cup in franchise history. And they did it behind Eichel’s 26 postseason points.
15) Alexsander Barkov, Florida Panthers – $10 million
Alexsander Barkov has long been considered one of the best two-way center in the NHL. He was drafted by the Florida Panthers as the second overall pick in 2013 and has been with the team ever since. In 2021, the Panthers invested in Barkov for the long term, signing him to an eight-year contract extension worth $80 million. He’s been central to the Panthers’ ascendance, helping them to four consecutive playoff appearances from 2020 to 2024. And last year, he captained the Panthers to their first ever Stanley Cup championship.
14) Jonathan Huberdeau, Calgary Flames – $10.5 million
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
13) Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens – $10.5 million
12) Mitchell Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs – $10.9 million
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
11) Rasmus Dahlin, Buffalo Sabres – $11 million
10) John Tavares, Toronto Maple Leafs – $11 million
9) Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings – $11 million
Drew Doughty is an NHL veteran. He was drafted back in 2008 as the second overall pick by the Los Angeles Kings. He made his debut with the team as an 18-year-old, and he was an instrumental part of the Kings squads that won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014. In 2018, he agreed to stay with the Kings for another 8 years—to the tune of $88 million, an average annual value of $11 million.
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
8) David Pastrnak, Boston Bruins – $11.25 million
7) William Nylander, Toronto Maple Leafs – $11.5 million
6) Erik Karlsson, Pittsburgh Penguins – $11.5 million
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
5) Elias Pettersson, Vancouver Canucks – $11.6 million
4) Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers – $11.64 million
New York Ranger Artemi Panarin comes in 4th on the list of highest paid NHL players in 2024. In 2019, the left wing signed an $81.5 million contract extension to stay with the Rangers through 2026—that’s an average annual value of $11.64 million.
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
Panarin’s got a great backstory. Like so many of the sport’s elite players, he developed a passion for skating in his early childhood. But when he went up for the NHL Entry Draft in 2010, he wasn’t selected; he played the first five years of his pro career in the Russian KHL. In 2015, he made it to the NHL—as an undrafted player, he signed a two-year, entry-level contract with the Chicago Blackhawks. And there, he didn’t waste any time solidifying himself as one of the league’s best scorers. In his first NHL campaign, he won the Calder Memorial Trophy, the award given to the league’s best rookie. Panarin did a two-year stint with the Columbus Blue Jackets before signing his long-term deal with the New York Rangers. In 2022, he recorded his 600th goal, becoming the fifth-fastest player in the league to do so.
3) Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers – $12.5 million
Connor McDavid’s contract with the Oilers (8 years, $100 million, $12.5 million AAV) makes him one of the highest paid NHL players in 2024. And that’s not surprising. From his first day in the NHL—he was selected by the Oilers as the first overall pick in the 2015 draft—he’s been putting up all-time numbers. For example: his second year in the league, he scored 100 goals and in so doing became the second youngest player ever to lead the league in scoring. He’s been the league’s top scorer another four times since.
2) Nathan MacKinnon, Colorado Avalanche – $12.6 million
Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche is another first overall draft pick to rank amongst the highest paid NHL players in 2024. He came into the league in 2013 and quickly established himself not only as one of the best players in the league, but as one of the best of his generation. He’s been with the Avalanche his entire career, and in 2022 he led the franchise to their third Stanley Cup championship and their first since 2001. The high-AAV contract was definitely worth it: MacKinnon was the top goal-scorer in the 2022 playoffs. His contract extension with the Avalanche, was, for a short time, the most lucrative in NHL history.
1) Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs – $13.25 million
The Toronto Maple Leafs’ Auston Matthews tops the list of the highest paid NHL players. Toronto took him as the first overall pick in the 2016 NHL draft, the first American to go number one since Patrick Kane in 2007. And his pro career couldn’t have gotten off to a more auspicious start: he scored four goals against the Ottawa Senators in the first game of the 2016-17 season, in so doing becoming the first ever player in modern NHL history to score four goals in his debut. That season, he amassed a total of 40 goals, marking another historic feat: in the last two decades, no rookie other than Alex Ovechkin had hit the 40-goal milestone. Matthews did it at 19 years old.
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 (Continued)
In 2023, the Maple Leafs locked Matthews down, signing him to a record-breaking four-year, $53 million contract extension. That’s an average annual value of $13.25 million, which makes Matthews the highest paid NHL player in history.
Highest Paid NHL Players 2024 – Additional Info
