Although the NHL has signed several record breaking contracts in the past few years, they still pale in comparison to the other major sports.

Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl, Toronto Maple Leafs captain Auston Matthews and Minnesota Wild winger Kirill Kaprizov are among some of the players who have recently signed record breaking contracts making them some of the highest paid players in NHL history, however, none of their contracts are even close to cracking the top 10 list for the highest contracts in all of sports.

Statistically speaking, the NHL is the least popular sport out of the four major sports in America. The NBA, NFL and MLB have all managed to garner a larger audience than professional hockey. However, the NHL is on the rise. Game 7 of the 2024 Stanley Cup Final amassed 10.3 million viewers at its peak, making it the largest non-original six audience for a game in NHL history.

With the NHL expanding significantly in viewership, the game has also seen an exponential rise financially. The salary cap is expected to increase from $95.5 million to $113.5 million by 2027-28. Since this increase is so drastic compared to previous years, we’ve seen several NHL players secure record breaking contracts.

Kirill Kaprizov is the most recent player to do so, signing an eight year, $136 million contract extension, making him the highest paid player in NHL history at $17 million per year.

Compared to leagues like Major League Baseball, this is nothing. New York Mets right fielder Juan Soto signed a 15 year, $765 million contract in December, 2024.

Easton Anello, A UMass commit and Cape Breton Eagles draft pick, believes that NHL players deserve similar pay to other sports.

“I feel like hockey players should be getting paid more,” said Easton. “It’s one of the most physically demanding sports, so I feel like they should try to match the other leagues.”

Even though NHL players undoubtably deserve the same amount of money, the issue lies in the size of the audience. Game 7 of the 2025 NBA finals almost doubled the Stanley Cup finals in viewership, culminating 19.6 million viewers at its peak.

Cam Tabb, a senior from Wolverham, Mass., summarized the issue perfectly.

“It’s definitely significantly lower, but it’s also based on how much revenue the league brings in,” said Tabb. “So if the league isn’t bringing in as much revenue as sports like baseball football and basketball then I guess it’s fair in that sense.”

Tabb also added that the NHL could play more games in other countries in order to “get a broader audience” and continue to expand the league’s popularity.

The NHL is seeing the largest salary cap jump of the modern era, and the game seems to have a larger audience than ever, but they still have a long way to go before reaching the next level of popularity.