On July 3rd, the NHL world was absolutely stunned to see the Philadelphia Flyers take a massive swing at a restricted free agent. The RFA, Leo Carlsson, had a breakout season and was selected 2nd overall in the 2023 NHL draft. The deal was a 5-year, $18M AVV, which automatically made the 21-year-old the highest-paid player in the NHL. The Anaheim Ducks had one week to match this deal and have done so, leaving many to wonder if the NHL is changing rapidly.
Will the salary cap rise rapidly?
Just to capture the imagination and insane reality of the MLB, 18 million a year is nothing. A player who might hit pretty well or pitch pretty well would make that kind of money. A good relief pitcher could easily make over 15 million a year. This is because of the lack of a salary cap in baseball, but in addition to the MLB, salaries in the NBA and NFL are still pretty insane, as their caps are much, much higher. The NHL, despite its growing popularity, is still the 4th most popular sport in America; baseball, football, and basketball rank ahead of it, which is one of the main reasons these kinds of contracts don't really exist in the NHL.
However, the Carlsson deal is a sign that the NHL may start seeing 20+ million contracts. Typically, the NHL's biggest contracts are between 12 and 15 million, but now that number is going to go up rapidly. The NHL has also raised the salary cap twice over the last few seasons, and raised it by 8.4 million before this next season. The max amount of money a player can be paid per season is now 20.8 million, and it leaves a pretty big question after this deal: will one team be daring enough to offer that?
Simply put, this deal is wild, but it is actually a good sign for hockey. The popularity of the sport has grown, especially after the Four Nations faceoff and the 2026 Winter Olympics saw the United States pull off a beautiful win against Canada. Ultimately, it will be interesting to see how this deal affectst the hockey world.
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