Joe's Reaction of the Week (Chip's Version): Money, Money, Money, Money ... Money
Massive contracts for Leo Carlsson and Macklin Celebrini may have reset how the whole NHL thinks about star salaries. What counts as fair now?
Admit it: You didn't read that title, you sang it. And now it's stuck in your head.
Such a great movie, by the way. Eminently quotable. But that's not what this column is about. This column is about money.
Everyone knew that, with the salary cap experiencing its first significant growth in years, player salaries were going to go up. But the offer sheet that the Philadelphia Flyers put in front of Leo Carlsson has completely changed the sport in ways not even most NHL executives saw coming.
The ten players with richest contracts (by average annual value) are:
- Macklin Celebrini - $18.8 million
- Leo Carlsson - $18 million
- Kirill Kaprizov - $17 million
- Connor Bedard - $15 million
- Leon Draisaitl - $14 million
- Jack Eichel - $13.5 million
- Auston Matthews - $13.25 million
- Nathan MacKinnon - $12.6 million
- Connor McDavid - $12.5 million
- Bowen Byram - $12.5 million
All but two of three of those contracts—Draisaitl, Matthews, and MacKinnon—have been signed within the last twelve months. Three of the top four were signed within the last 30 days. The money is staggering and no one seems to know how to process it.
The Anaheim Ducks matched the Flyers' offer sheet to Carlsson, but now their other neophyte, Cutter Gauthier, wants $15 million or more to sign long term. Columbus Blue Jacket (for now) Kirill Marchenko has let it be known that he wants the same bag that the New York Rangers handed to Pavel Dorofeyev. Jason Robertson accepted a one-year, $12 million contract from the Dallas Stars this summer because he wants to stay in Dallas, but he also wants to get paid at a level that the salary cap won't allow Dallas to reach right now.
The cash isn't stopping with the top of the market players.
- Pavel Dorofeyev - $11 million
- Trevor Zegras - $9.5 million
- John Carlson - $8.5 million
- Rasmus Andersson - $8.5 million
- Darren Raddysh - $8.5 million
- Jacob Trouba - $8.25 million (Are ya fucking kidding me?!?!?!)
- Patrick Kane - $8 million
- Sergei Bobrovsky - $7 million
- Mason Marchment - $6.75 million
Most of the players on this list are really good players. Really good. But, holy hell.
I like Patrick Kane and I thought that the New York Rangers should have been in on him. But for a player at his age to get $8 million per year as he did from the Chicago Blackhawks is wild. Even the $11 million per year that the Rangers gave Pavel Dorofeyev has to be looked at through the lens of the NHL's new math to truly make sense.
There is no world in which $8.25 million for Jacob Trouba makes sense. That's just bat shit crazy stuff right there.
So, what does this all mean?
