Another day, another big contract signed in this new NHL. Early Monday, the Montreal Canadiens signed reigning Calder Trophy winner, Lane Hutson, to an eight-year deal with an AAV of $8.85M. But Hutson isn’t alone in the shiny new contract department. In fact, there have been a number of new, high AAV contracts signed over the last 12 months. So, that begs the question: are NHL salaries finally exploding?

A simple question with a not-so-simple answer. 

First, here’s a rundown of some of the notable new AAVs signed over the past 12 months (listed in reverse chronological order): Hutson $8.85M, Jack Eichel $13.5M, Kyle Connor $12M, Connor McDavid $12.5M, Jackson LaCombe $9M, Luke Hughes $9M, Kirill Kaprizov $17M, Mason McTavish $7M, Dustin Wolf $7.5M, Thatcher Demko $8.5M, Ivan Provorov $8.5M, Mitch Marner $12M, Evan Bouchard $10.5M, Noah Dobson $9.5M, Wyatt Johnston $8.4M, Mikko Rantanen $12M and Igor Shesterkin $11.5M. (Credit to PuckPedia for the salary information). 

As you can see, that’s quite a few players who have signed for larger-than-normal AAVs. We’re not saying they don’t deserve them, although you could argue that Hutson, LaCombe, Hughes, McTavish, Provorov and Dobson are currently overpays (but with the ability to potentially become reasonable figures in a few years). 

There used to be a time, even very recently, in which AAVs over $7M were considered rare. And don’t even start on salaries of $10M+, those were reserved for only the best of the best and even then, they were scarce. After all, neither Sidney Crosby nor Alex Ovechkin carried AAVs of $10M+ (of course, that was their choice as they certainly would have exceeded that number if they had wanted to). 

Yes, the “Flat Cap Era” that came about because of the COVID-19 pandemic was largely reasonable for suppressing salaries over the last half-decade. And yes, with The NHL now back to growing its revenue, the salary cap is going to rise quite substantially over the next couple of years. 

The 2025-26 season is being played with a cap of $95.5M. That’s a sizable jump from last year’s $88M. Next year (2026-27) it’s set to increase to $104M and in 2027-28 it’s supposed to be $113.5M. That means that from 2024-2028, the salary cap will jump a whopping $25.5M. Of course, there are rumblings that the $104M and $113.5M figures could end up being even higher. 

So, with the cap rapidly increasing, it’s only natural for salaries to increase as well. However, if you remove Kaprizov’s $17M figure, you’ll notice a lot of bunching up around the $12M plateau. Yes, some of those players have chosen to take less than what they could have gotten on the open market in order to help massage their team’s cap situations. However, there’s no denying that the $12M mark seems to be an artificial plateau where the best players reside. 

We are seeing significantly more players crossing the $10M AAV mark than ever before, but largely, they are among the game’s best players, so it still seems reasonable. Where there’s a noticeable jump is in the $7-$9M range. That tier used to be reserved for perennial All-Stars, but now you have players with less than three full seasons on their resumes entering that once rare club. 

So, while The NHL’s “Upper Class” seems to be content with staying in the $10-$12.5M range, The League’s “Middle Class” is seeing its salaries jump quite nicely. And young players, who are still finding their footing in The League, are benefiting as well, as teams try to manage their future cap hits by doling out higher-than-normal numbers now in order to keep those players’ salaries from skyrocketing out of control down the line. 

In conclusion, NHL salaries are not quite “exploding,” but they are rapidly on the rise and it’s quite jarring to see after so many years of stagnation. Nobody will ever confuse NHL salaries with those of NBA, NFL and MLB players, but growth is still growth and The NHL is entering into an unprecedented time in its history.