Ranking the Highest-Paid NHL Players for 2025-26

If you’re one of those people who thinks that all professional athletes are overpaid and should just pull a Shoeless Joe Jackson and ‘play for free,’ then I would suggest you stop reading now. 

The NHL’s salaries may already be very high, but they’re about to increase by even more. 

For the 2025-26 season, the NHL’s salary cap will be set at $95 million, which is the first significant cap increase since before 2020. However, in January of this year, the NHL announced that by the 2027-28 season, the salary cap would be increased to $113.5 million. 

These numbers are fueled by increasingly bonkers television media rights deals that continue to rise, with little correlation to the actual ratings numbers in every sport. 

But for this upcoming season, 18 players will be paid $10 million or more for their services. Here’s a ranking of the highest-paid players currently in the NHL. 

Ranking Highest-Paid NHL Players 

Who’s the Highest Paid Player?

Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl will be the league’s highest-paid player next season. He’s owed $14 million from the Oilers for the first year of an eight-year $112 million deal he signed last season. 

Draisaitl finished second in Hart Trophy voting this year behind Connor Hellebuyck, earning 53 first-place votes. With him and his teammate Connor McDavid at the helm, Edmonton reached a second-straight Stanley Cup Final but were handed a second-straight loss by the Florida Panthers. 

Draisaitl had 52 goals and 54 assists last season in 71 games played, matching his point total of 106 from the year before. 

He won the Hart Trophy and Art Ross Trophy for his 2019-20 season in which he had 43 goals and 67 assists in 71 games played. 

Who Will Join This List Next?

Next offseason will probably be one of the biggest spending offseasons in modern NHL history, with several pending UFAs that could end up with massive contracts. 

The star-studded UFA class includes players who aren’t currently in that $11 million or higher AAV club, like Jack Eichel, Kirill Kaprizov, and Cale Makar. All three of these players will likely receive contracts that will place them in the upper echelon of salaries in the NHL. 

Connor Bedard, Jason Robertson, Martin Necas, and Trevor Zegras are pending RFAs who could be in line for a potentially $10 million or higher AAV contract.

I’d be on the lookout for Makar, already a two-time Norris Trophy winner, to potentially set a new record for overall money. 

McDavid, who’s already fourth on this list, could be in line for a deal that may be shorter on term but could have a record AAV. ESPN’s Greg Wyshinski reported that league sources believe McDavid could be in line for a deal ranging between $15.5 million and $19 million per year.