NHL front offices must budget for a star player’s looming contract status far in advance. Planning ahead of time is necessary because there’s a major trickle-down effect when one of the best players on a team goes from being significantly underpaid to commanding huge money. There are fewer dollars to go around for other parts of the roster, which can force teams to make tough decisions to let other players go.
Advertisement Leon Draisaitl ’s eight-year, $112 million extension is the first domino to fall among marquee players whose contracts are set to expire at the end of the 2024-25 season. Which stars could be next, how much could they cost and how will it impact their respective team’s cap situation? In this piece, we’re going to analyze some of those questions, focusing primarily on players who are projected to see a significant spike in their cap hit (we won’t include Sidney Crosby , for example, because his next deal won’t cost substantially more than the $8.7 million AAV he’s already on).
Every team on this list can afford to extend the elite player in question, but the point is to highlight which clubs can handle it more comfortably than others and what sacrifices it may require elsewhere. When a team and player negotiate the price of a new contract, they’ll search for players who are comparable in production, age and overall value. They’ll look at what those comparables earned on their contracts and that often becomes a ballpark range for that pla.