As hockey is such a high-impact sport, it’s often very difficult for franchises to want to commit to long-term, big-money deals as a major injury can be just around the corner.
We’ve seen some huge deals prove the risk, with Alexei Yashin’s ten-year, $87.5 million deal with the New York Islanders and Vincent Lecavalier’s $85 million deal over 11 years with the Tampa Bay Lightning being prime examples.
Still, when it comes to the ten biggest NHL contracts of all time – many of which are quite recent – more often than not, the teams made a sound choice.
10 - David Pastrnak ($90M, 8yr)
Towards the end of a superb regular season for both the team and the skater, the Boston Bruins tied David Pastrnak down to an eight-year, $90 million deal.
At the time that the news broke on March 2, 2023, Pastrnak had already tallied 42 goals and 80 points. The 27-year-old Czech finished the campaign with 61 goals.
With the winger in his physical prime now and the Bruins having an eye for skaters who can play well into their 30s, giving Pastrnak the tenth-biggest NHL contract of all time made sense.
9 - Erik Karlsson ($92M, 8yr)
In June 2019, after losing in six games to the St. Louis Blues to fall just shy of a second Stanley Cup Finals appearance in three years, keeping the elite core and signing Erik Karlsson to a new deal made sense.
What didn’t make sense was the sheer amount of money and term given to the offensive defenseman who had notably regressed in his short stint with the Sharks.
In the three seasons after signing, San Jose failed to make it to the playoffs, struggled for cap space to build a competitive team, while the Swede averaged 52 games and 32 points per season.
Last season, Karlsson finally played as the Sharks had hoped for four years, putting up 101 points in 82 games, so the rebuilding team offloaded the four years and 87 percent of his $11.5 million cap hit to the Pittsburgh Penguins.
8 - Zach Parise ($98M, 13yr)
In July 2012, the Minnesota Wild had missed the playoffs for four consecutive seasons and desperately needed a boost to become relevant in the Western Conference.
As the offseason came around, the franchise saw the prime opportunity in Minneapolis-born Zach Parise, who was the New Jersey Devils’ captain in the season before and had just fired in 31 goals and 69 points.
The signing, which hit the cap for $7.5 million per season over 13 years, was a clear statement of intent, and while injuries kept popping up, Parise would be a consistent scorer for the Wild and leader in the dressing room over the next nine seasons of play.
7 - Ryan Suter ($98M, 13yr)
Minnesota was running wild in the 2012 offseason and was ready to chain one major signing, Zach Parise, with another. Once again, they targeted a proven American skater.
Having established himself as an elite-tier defenseman with the Nashville Predators, when Ryan Suter hit the market, the Wild went all-in with another 13-year, $98 million deal.
Suter delivered on every level for Minnesota over the next nine seasons, usually playing every single game and only dropping below 40 points on three occasions.
Now with the Dallas Stars, even though he’s 38-years-old, Suter’s played two full seasons and is a key piece of the relentless defence that keeps the Stars as dark horse contenders in the NHL betting at +1700.
6 - Ilya Kovalchuk ($100M, 15-yr)
A proven sniper by the time of the trade deadline in the 2009/10 season, Ilya Kovalchuk declined a massive deal from the Atlanta Thrashers of over $100 million, and with just one year left, he was dealt to the New Jersey Devils.
The Devils gave up Johnny Oduya, Niclas Bergfors, Patrice Cormier, and a first-rounder to essentially get the first swing at signing the Russian to his next deal. Kovalchuk made his case with 27 points in 27 games after the trade.
Initially, the Devils and Kovalchuk came to an agreement on $102 million over 17 years, but the NHL quickly rejected the deal. Eventually, the contract agreed was for $100 million over 15 years.
Over the next three campaigns – one of which was the Lockout in 2012/13 – Kovalchuk would score 79 goals and 174 points in 195 games and help them make it to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Then, Kovalchuk retired. Ditching some $77 million in New Jersey, he returned to his native Russia to play for the team that housed him during the Lockout, leaving the Devils with fines and draft pick forfeits without the star to make the punishments worth it.
5 - Connor McDavid ($100M, 8yr)
Few were surprised when the Edmonton Oilers happily coughed up a league-high salary cap hit of $12.5 million to keep Connor McDavid in the team for the next eight years.
Only 20-years-old at the time, McDavid had already become team captain and broke the 100-point mark in his sophomore season. An injury-disrupted rookie season of 48 points in 45 games was swiftly forgotten by that point.
Since then, McDavid’s put up point tallies of 108, 116, 97, 105, 123, and 153, hoisting the franchise back to the playoffs, with the most recent season being their fourth-consecutive run at the Stanley Cup.
They fell short last season, but now, with three years left on his hefty contract, McDavid will look to capitalize on the sport betting odds of +900 for the Oilers to finally win the Stanley Cup again.
4 - Nathan MacKinnon ($100.8M, 8yr)
As if to pip the undisputed best player in the league, the Colorado Avalanche gave their Stanley Cup-winning assistant captain a deal that’d hit the cap for $12.6 million per season for eight seasons.
That new deal kicks in next season, keeping Nathan MacKinnon in Denver through to 2031. As he’s just scored 111 points in 71 games, some may even see the contract as a bargain – especially if they go for the Cup again.
3 - Sidney Crosby ($104.4M, 12yr)
Despite it being one of the biggest NHL contracts of all time, Sidney Crosby’s 12-year, $104.4 million deal that kicked in for the 2013/14 season can now be looked at as one of the best deals of the Salary Cap Era.
From 2013/14 to now, Crosby has scored 312 goals and 837 points in 720 regular season games, 96 points in the playoffs, and he’s hoisted the Stanley Cup in back-to-back years for the Penguins.
All of this comes while hitting the cap for just $8.7 million. The team captain is now entering the penultimate year of that deal, is fixated on bringing another Cup to Pittsburgh, and will be 37-years-old when he inks his next deal.
2 - Shea Weber ($110M, 14yr)
The Nashville Predators had just seen one top-tier defenseman, Ryan Suter, leave for the Minnesota Wild and weren’t ready to see Shea Weber follow suit.
However, they’d be made to pay a high price to keep at least one of their star blueliners. In a crafty move, the Philadelphia Flyers offered the restricted free agent a 14-year, $110 million deal, so the Predators had to match it.
Were the deal to have gone through, the Flyers would have likely needed to give up four first-round draft picks in compensation. Instead, the Predators got four solid seasons from their captain before trading him.
In a blockbuster move, and with Roman Josi emerging as an elite defenseman, Nashville sent Weber to the Montréal Canadiens for P.K. Subban. For the Habs, Weber would consistently struggle with injuries.
Since helping Montréal to get to an unexpected Stanley Cup Finals in 2021, Weber has been out injured, with his contract being traded around and the defenseman being more than happy to pick up the cheque for the next three years.
1 - Alex Ovechkin ($124M, 13yr)
In a record-making move, the Washington Capitals signed 22-year-old Alex Ovechkin to a $124 million deal over 13 years in 2008. By that point, the Russian had already scored 163 goals in three seasons.
Ovechkin made the Caps relevant in their home market. His bruising play coupled with his sharpshooting made the team incredibly popular, and he remains one of the biggest draws.
In 2018, “The Great 8” guided the Capitals to the Stanley Cup and continued to score at an incredible rate. When his contract was set to expire in 2021, the Caps gave him a five-year, $47.5 million deal to keep him until 2026.
He’s got three seasons left to close the gap on Wayne Gretzky’s career goals tally record of 894 goals in 1487 games. Ovechkin is currently on 822 in 1,357 games, having just scored 50 and 42 in his last two seasons.
In most cases, the ten biggest NHL contracts of all time have gone to superstar players and have proven to be well worth the money. However, notable exceptions here can be made for injury-plagued defensemen.
*Credit for all images in this article belongs to AP Photo*
