Back in 2005, the agreement reached between the owners and players saw the players' salaries cut by 24%. Since that time the salary cap which was originally set at $39 million has risen over 80%. Now part of that increase reflects a rise in the Canadian dollars since the cap is based on league revenue in US dollars. As result player salaries have risen above the pre-lockout levels. Below are the top 15 salaries and all will be making $8 million in the coming season. Well at least under the expiring collective agreement. Because most of these contracts are front-loaded the cap hit would be lower but these are the actually numbers on the paychecks.
Looking back to 2003-04, the top NHL salaries were Peter Forsberg and Jaromir Jagr at $11,000,000 and the top 15 earners made $8,500,000 or more. Of course revenues have also gone up over the past 7 years. The NHL's offer to the players would reduce salaries once again by 24% bringing them back to 2005-06 levels. However, what the NHLPA has pointed out reducing salaries has not really helped the small market teams. It sure has made the big market teams more profitable. So the players propose that the richer teams redistribute some of their revenue to the unprofitable teams which is why talks are at an impasse. The owners want the burden to be solely on the backs of the players.
These negotiations are anything but a balanced playing field - all the leverage is with the owners. They can afford to shut the league down for a long time if necessary. The players cannot. The players warn that the game will be damaged by another lockout. The owners know that won't happen because it didn't happen in 2004-05.
| Player | Pos | Team | Age | Length | Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | Weber, Shea » | D | NAS | 27 | 14 | $14,000,000 |
| 2. | Richards, Brad » | F | NYR | 32 | 9 | $12,000,000 |
| 3. | Myers, Tyler » | D | BUF | 22 | 7 | $12,000,000 |
| 4. | Parise, Zach » | F | MIN | 28 | 13 | $12,000,000 |
| 5. | Suter, Ryan » | D | MIN | 27 | 13 | $12,000,000 |
| 6. | Kovalchuk, Ilya » | F | NJD | 29 | 15 | $11,000,000 |
| 7. | Lecavalier, Vincent » | F | TBL | 32 | 11 | $10,000,000 |
| 8. | Malkin, Evgeni » | F | PIT | 26 | 5 | $9,000,000 |
| 9. | Ovechkin, Alex » | F | WAS | 26 | 13 | $9,000,000 |
| 10. | Staal, Eric » | F | CAR | 27 | 7 | $8,500,000 |
| 11. | Richards, Mike » | F | LAK | 27 | 12 | $8,400,000 |
| 12. | Spezza, Jason » | F | OTT | 29 | 7 | $8,000,000 |
| 13. | Keith, Duncan » | D | CHI | 29 | 13 | $8,000,000 |
| 14. | Ehrhoff, Christian » | D | BUF | 30 | 10 | $8,000,000 |
| 15. | Stamkos, Steven » | F | TBL | 22 | 5 | $8,000,000 |
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