- NHL players are on track for a record $170 million on top of their 2025-26 salaries
- Escrow has been switched off since January 2025 as revenue outruns payroll
- Read below for the five-year growth numbers and what Leon Draisaitl clears
NHL players are getting a raise nobody had to negotiate.
They are in line for roughly $170 million on top of what they already earned in 2025-26, a record payout, Kurt Badenhausen of Sportico reported. That comes to about 5.5 percent extra on every paycheck from last season.
The money falls out of the 50-50 revenue split in the CBA. When league revenue climbs faster than player salaries, the gap goes back to the players. Escrow, the word that made agents wince for two decades, has sat at zero since the league shut it off in January 2025.
Leon Draisaitl carried the highest salary in hockey last season at $16.5 million, so he clears around $910,000 extra. Nathan MacKinnon, Igor Shesterkin, Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner and Mikko Rantanen all made at least $15 million and are each looking at $825,000 or more.
Gary Bettman explained where all of it is coming from back in June, during his State of the League address before Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final. He put the league’s revenue somewhere between $7.5 billion and $8 billion, with more than 75 corporate sponsors signed and regular-season buildings filled to 96 percent of capacity.
“Every platform, every source of revenue is growing,” Bettman said. “It’s going to be even better next year because the new media deal in Canada kicks in.”
Watch the full session with Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly:
That Canadian package is worth $11 billion CAD, more than double the $5.2 billion CAD deal it replaces. South of the border, Prime Video bought 12 years of Wednesday nights.
Pro Hockey Rumors ran the five-year math on Saturday and stacked hockey up against the other three major leagues. The NHL landed at 41.5 percent growth since 2021-22, wedged between the NBA and NFL and comfortably ahead of baseball.
| League | Five years ago | Latest season | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| NBA | $10B | $14.3B (est.) | 43% |
| NHL | $5.3B | $7.5B to $8B | 41.5% |
| NFL | $17.2B | $24.1B | 40% |
| MLB | $9.6B | $12.5B (est.) | 30% |
Hockey is working with a much smaller pot than any of the three and still matching their pace. Franchise values say the same thing. Sportico valued the average NHL club at $2.1 billion last year, a 108 percent jump in three years, against 83 percent for the NBA, 72 percent for the NFL and 34 percent for MLB.
Players see it in the cap. The ceiling sat at $88 million in 2024-25 and is projected to reach $113.5 million by 2027-28, and contracts have sprinted to keep up. Macklin Celebrini’s five-year extension in San Jose carries an $18.8 million AAV, the biggest number any player in the sport has ever signed for.
Escrow will come back eventually, once salaries catch the revenue line again. Until then, the biggest earners in hockey are cashing checks they never signed for.
