Ranking Every NHL Player with a Cap Hit of $10-Plus Million in the 2022-23 Season
They're all among the NHL's best players. Some are among its biggest enigmas.
Clearly, when it comes to the 14 players with a cap hit of at least $10 million in the 2022-23 regular season, a lot has to do with perception and circumstance.
Many are being counted on to lead their teams into serious contention for a Stanley Cup championship this season while others are the subject of rumors that'd see them dealt to clear salary-cap room to further a roster revamp.
The B/R hockey writing team took a look at the eight-figure players and considered the value of their deals and their current levels of production while ranking them from 1 to 14.
Scroll through to take a look at what we came up with and drop a thought of your own in the comments.
14. Carey Price, Montreal Canadiens
1 of 14
Salary: $10.5 million
The value: Carey Price signed an eight-year, $84 million extension in July 2017 and the then-29-year-old looked poised to keep the Montreal Canadiens relevant for the life of the deal, having already won both a Vezina Trophy as the league's best goaltender and a Hart Trophy as its most valuable player. It seemed like a rock-solid foundational move.
The outlook: To say it's not gone as planned would be an understatement. Price did backstop the Canadiens to a Stanley Cup Final at the end of the contract's third season, but he's been dogged by injuries, appearing in just 30 regular-season games in the two seasons before this one.
And the pain that lingers from a long-term knee problem at age 35 makes it unlikely he'll ever return to full-time status. "It’s not a great-looking outlook as far as a hockey career when you’re struggling to get up and down stairs," he told The Athletic.
13. Jonathan Toews, Chicago Blackhawks
2 of 14
Salary: $10.5 million
The value: Jonathan Toews signed an eight-year, $84 million extension with the Chicago Blackhawks alongside teammate Patrick Kane in July 2014, shortly before the season in which they earned their third Stanley Cup in six years. It made perfect hockey sense to lock up the foundational pieces, still in their 20s, to long-term deals.
The outlook: Though Toews did help provide another championship and was a 35-goal scorer in 2018-19, he's also been plagued by health issues lately. He missed the entire 2020-21 season due to Chronic Immune Response Syndrome, and, though he returned for 71 games last season and produced 37 points, his age (34) and paycheck don't fit with a Blackhawks organization committed to a roster overhaul, prompting trade chatter.
It'd be more of a surprise if he finished the season, and the contract, in Chicago than if the team's leadership moved him to a contender at the deadline for one last run at a title.
12. Sergei Bobrovsky, Florida Panthers
3 of 14
Salary: $10 million
The value: When Sergei Bobrovsky arrived to Florida as a free agent in the summer of 2019, he'd already earned a pair of Vezina trophies and had won 115 games and posted 21 shutouts in his last three seasons. So to the extent a seven-year, $70 million deal for a goaltender can make sense, his did. But in hindsight, not so much.
The outlook: Now 34, Bobrovsky has been occasionally excellent and sometimes below average in three full seasons with the Panthers, in which they still have not mounted a serious championship run. They won a Presidents' Trophy and he turned in a 39-7-3 mark in the 2021-22 regular season, but a 4-6 mark with a .911 save percentage in the playoffs followed, leaving the Miami metropolitan faithful shaking their heads.
He's still a valuable piece, but considering Spencer Knight was picked in the first round in 2019 and started 27 games as a rookie, it's clear a succession plan is already in place.
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11. Drew Doughty, Los Angeles Kings
4 of 14
Salary: $11 million
The value: Drew Doughty got a healthy raise in 2018, boosting his annual salary from $7 million to $11 million after winning a pair of Stanley Cups with the Los Angeles Kings in addition to a Norris Trophy as the league's best defenseman. He'd reached double-digit goals in seven of the previous nine seasons and was coming off a career-high 60 points.
The outlook: He's not approached those numbers since and played in just 39 games last season thanks to injuries that also kept him out of the team's postseason series against Edmonton. But his veteran leadership remains strong with a rising team. He had played in all seven games this season through Monday night, with at least 25 minutes of ice time in each.
10. Erik Karlsson, San Jose Sharks
5 of 14
Salary: $11.5 million
The value: Erik Karlsson arrived in San Jose after the Sharks pulled off a massive trade with the Ottawa Senators that cost them four players and four draft picks, and he struck it rich the following year with an eight-year extension worth $11.5 million per season after the team went to the Western Conference Final.
The outlook: This one hasn't aged well. Though Karlsson is still a quality player who averages more than 20 minutes per game, he has not played more than 56 games in any of his four seasons with the Sharks and has topped out at 45 points—matching the lowest total he'd posted in any season with Ottawa in which he'd played at least 60 games.
And it's a fair bet new GM Mike Grier would like to get out from under a deal that accounts for nearly 14 percent of his team's total payroll in 2022-23.
9. Mitchell Marner, Toronto Maple Leafs
6 of 14
Salary: $10.9 million
The value: Mitchell Marner has been an effective player from the moment he reached NHL ice, and he was particularly timely in 2018-19, producing a 94-point season across 82 games in the final year of an entry deal and parlaying it into a six-year contract worth $10.9 million annually. A big jump? Absolutely. But he's been better than a point-per-game player since signing it and, at age 25, ought to have several more good years ahead.
The outlook: The worth of Marner's contract is inexorably tied up in the success of the Toronto Maple Leafs. As any borderline NHL fan knows, the Maple Leafs are in the midst of a Stanley Cup drought that's stretched past a half century, and they've not won a playoff series in 17 years.
If Marner and his two teammates on this list deliver a championship, their salaries won't matter. If they don't, it'll be a topic of conversation until they're each wearing different uniforms.
8. Anze Kopitar, Los Angeles Kings
7 of 14
Salary: $10 million
The value: Anze Kopitar signed an eight-year, $80 million extension with the Los Angeles Kings in the midst of a 2015-16 season in which he won the Selke Trophy as the league's best two-way forward. That came two seasons after the second of two Stanley Cups with the team. So it's not surprising that he was locked up for the long term.
The outlook: He's never produced otherworldly offensive numbers—topping out (so far) at 35 goals and 92 points in 2017-18—but his effectiveness in all zones and his leadership chops in the locker room provide worth that the scoresheet doesn't catch.
The Kings reached the playoffs last season after a three-year absence, and they're expected to be relevant in the Pacific Division and Western Conference races this year, thanks largely to the impact Kopitar continues to make.
7. John Tavares, Toronto Maple Leafs
8 of 14
Salary: $11 million
The value: The second of three Toronto players on this list, John Tavares chose his hometown Maple Leafs in free agency and signed a seven-year, $77 million deal after spending nine seasons with the New York Islanders and reaching 30 goals four times, including a then-career-best 38 in 2014-15.
The outlook: Tavares smashed his own standard with 47 goals in his initial season with Toronto but hasn't passed 27 in three seasons since. It hasn't stopped the Maple Leafs from being the third-most prolific scoring team in the league across those three seasons, though, and, like Marner before him, the value of his deal will forever be linked with whether Toronto's star-laden roster delivers a championship.
Now among the team's elders at age 32, he has two years remaining on the contract after 2022-23, and the eight-point start in seven games this season is a good sign.
6. Patrick Kane, Chicago Blackhawks
9 of 14
Salary: $10.5 million
The value: The second of two veteran superstars in Chicago who've entered the final seasons of their existing blockbuster deals, Patrick Kane has been a popular source of trade chatter for several months. He shows no real signs of slowing, even at age 33, and was seventh in the league with 66 assists last season even as the team around him crumbled to a 27th overall finish that triggered massive offseason roster turnover.
The outlook: Like Toews before him, it'll be a surprise if Kane remains in Chicago through the trade deadline unless the team somehow maintains the momentum of a 3-2 start for the long haul. He's been connected to Pittsburgh, the New York Rangers and Edmonton, among others, in various rumors, and it'd be no shock to see him playing a significant role in an established team's playoff push this season.
5. Aleksander Barkov, Florida Panthers
10 of 14
Salary: $10 million
The value: Aleksander Barkov is one of those players whose talents you're aware of if you're a serious hockey follower. But the casual fan may not recognize him because he plays in the non-traditional market of metropolitan Miami and his efforts were obscured by those of now-ex-teammate Jonathan Huberdeau for several years. But Barkov signed an eight-year, $80 million extension on the eve of last season with the Panthers, who drafted him second overall behind Nathan MacKinnon in 2013.
The outlook: Barkov had just won a Selke before signing the extension with Florida, whom he then rewarded with a career-high 39 goals in an 88-point season while powering the Panthers to a Presidents' Trophy. The dynamic has changed now that Huberdeau is off to Calgary and Matthew Tkachuk has arrived in his place, but Barkov, still just 27, figures to have several productive years ahead of him.
4. Jack Eichel, Vegas Golden Knights
11 of 14
Salary: $10 million
The value: At this time last year, Jack Eichel was the story in hockey. Deposed as captain by the Buffalo Sabres after a disagreement about treatment for an injury, the No. 2 overall pick from 2015 (behind some guy named McDavid) waited to get surgery until the Sabres swung a deal that sent him and his $10 million annual salary to the Vegas Golden Knights. He ultimately produced 25 points in 34 games with his new team after recovering from surgery and is the centerpiece for a franchise looking for a return to the playoffs.
The outlook: So long as the 25-year-old remains healthy, this was a coup for the Golden Knights. He'd already begun climbing the ladder of the league's best players during five full seasons with a then-woeful Buffalo franchise, and now that he's surrounded by a better group in Vegas, he seems likely to fulfill the promise that warranted a No. 2 overall pick. He recorded three goals and seven points in the team's first seven games this season as it surged to first place in the Pacific Division, and title contention seems predictable going forward.
3. Artemi Panarin, New York Rangers
12 of 14
Salary: $11.6 million
The value: Artemi Panarin is in his fourth season in New York, and he's become such a fixture with the Rangers that it's difficult to recall that he began his NHL career in Chicago and won the Calder Trophy there as the league's best rookie in 2015-16 before ultimately heading to Columbus as part of a multiplayer trade in 2017. He was a point-per-game player in two seasons there before heading to midtown Manhattan as a free agent with a seven-year, $81.5 million deal in 2019.
The outlook: The payoff was immediate for the Rangers, who were the beneficiaries of a 95-point season in 2019-20 that earned Panarin third place in MVP voting. He dipped to 58 points in only 42 games the next season before returning to form with a 96-point season in 2021-22 and adding 16 points in a deep playoff run that saw New York in the league's final four for the first time since 2015. It seems more of the same is on its way in 2022-23 with the soon-to-be 31-year-old off to a start that's got him leading the NHL in both assists (eight, tie) and points (12) through Monday's games.
2. Auston Matthews, Toronto Maple Leafs
13 of 14
Salary: $11.6 million
The value: Make no mistake, $11.6 million is a hefty annual salary for a hockey player. But when that hockey player is Auston Matthews—and he's the league's reigning MVP after a season in which he became the first 60-goal scorer in 10 years—it seems a bit less. Matthews signed his five-year, $58.2 million extension in February 2019 amid a season in which he finished with 37 goals and 73 points. Amazingly, the 37-goal output stands as the second-lowest of his career now that he's followed with seasons of 47, 41 and 60.
The outlook: The mantra that stood for Marner and Tavares stands for Matthews as well. His salary will be forgiven for eternity if he's able to help the Maple Leafs to a Stanley Cup. As it stands, he'll enter the final year of the existing deal next season and will be the target of a significant push for extension by GM Kyle Dubas before he nears the open market. The $100.8 million extension that MacKinnon recently signed goes into effect next season and will likely set the market for players like Matthews and others in his prolific neighborhood.
1. Connor McDavid, Edmonton Oilers
14 of 14
Salary: $12.5 million
The value: If there's a possibility that a guy who's the highest-paid player in the league can seem like a bargain at $12.5 million per season, Connor McDavid is that guy. He's still a few months shy of his 26th birthday and has already won four scoring titles and two MVP awards. The eight-year, $100 million extension he signed in July 2017 will no doubt remain the best move Peter Chiarelli made during a sometimes stormy and not fondly recalled tenure as Edmonton's GM.
The outlook: Nothing but bright. McDavid is the consensus best player in the world and still squarely in his prime years, which has ramped up the expectations of Oilers fans considering they reached the Western Conference Final last season. In fact, McDavid led all players in postseason scoring despite playing one series fewer than anyone with Colorado or Tampa Bay. He's got three more seasons remaining on the deal after 2022-23, and a Stanley Cup is the only thing he's not won. Of course, the unspoken doomsday scenario in northern Alberta is that the Cup never comes and he skips town as a 29-year-old free agent in 2026. Gulp!
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