NHL Salary Information

The National Hockey League is financially stronger and more viable than it was several years ago, when owners and players canceled the 2004-2005 season due to disagreements about salary levels. The solution was to place a salary cap on the league and team payrolls, allowing teams to be on a more even playing field with one another while allowing owners to hopefully avoid bankruptcy.

  1. Salary Cap Basics

    • The current NHL salary cap has been in place since the league returned from the lockout of the 2004-2005 season. The figure for the 2009-2010 season was $56.8 million, based on the Collective Bargaining Agreement which states that players will receive between 54 percent and 57 percent of total revenues depending on what level those revenues are. League revenues below $2.2 billion trigger the lowest percentage, while league revenues above $2.7 billion trigger the highest percentage.

    Hard Salary Cap and Guaranteed Contracts

    • The NHL utilizes a hard salary cap, which means that it cannot be breached regardless of circumstances. This differs from the NBA which imparts a "luxury tax" on teams which go over the cap. The NHL salary cap also differs in structure from the NFL's, which does not allow for guaranteed contracts but does have a hard cap in place. The NHL is currently the only major American sports league to have both a hard cap and guaranteed player contracts.

    The Minimum Payroll

    • In addition to a maximum salary cap for the NHL, the league also has a minimum salary level per team. This is placed at $16 million below the maximum, creating an allowable range where teams can fall for their yearly payrolls. The minimum payroll level for the 2009-2010 NHL season was $40.8 million.

    Maximum Player Salaries

    • The NHL salary cap also enforces restrictions on individual player salaries. Any individual player cannot account for more than 20 percent of the maximum payroll level the year he signs his contract. In the 2009-2010 NHL season, that meant a maximum individual salary of $11.4 million. However, if after signing the contract the salary cap decreases due to a drop in league revenue, a player's contract would not have to be adjusted from what it previously was, despite it potentially now accounting for more than 20 percent of the maximum payroll.

    Long Term Contracts

    • A recent trend in the NHL salary cap era has been to sign players to long term deals in the range of 10 years or longer. This allows a club to lock up their best players while backloading the contract, which means that the salary in the final years of the contract will be much higher than the current year. For teams this is based on the theory that league revenues continue to increase, which allows them to keep their players now for a lower percentage of team payroll while still paying them the same total amount.

    Minimum Player Salaries

    • The minimum NHL salary for a year long contract is currently $500,000. The minimum salary has been increasing at two season intervals, and will remain at $500,000 through the 2010-2011 season before rising to $525,000 for the following two seasons.