The Colorado Avalanche have made star forward Nathan MacKinnon the highest-paid player in the NHL, surpassing Connor McDavid who suggested the deal was ‘good for hockey’.
The Avalanche signed MacKinnon - the first overall pick of the 2013 NHL Draft - to an eight-year extension worth $12.6 million annually. The contact is worth $100.8m in total, although it doesn’t kick in until 2023/24 as he still has one year remaining.
Last season, MacKinnon won the Stanley Cup as the leading goal-scorer in the playoffs. The 27-year-old is entering the final year of his previous contract, but his impending average annual value surpasses McDavid’s $12.5m.
McDavid, a two-time winner of the NHL MVP award - the Hart Memorial Trophy - and a four-time member of the First All-Star Team, praised MacKinnon’s new deal. The Edmonton Oilers star suggested the contract is a necessary evolution as hockey continues to develop.
“It’s good for hockey, I guess, to keep raising the bar,” McDavid said. “But ultimately the salary cap system's a weird system where the more money you make, the less money someone else can make.
“It's kind of a weird system that way. There's always going to be give and take.”
The $100.8m deal is the fourth largest contract in NHL history, behind Alex Ovechkin's $124m, 13-year contract with Washington, Shea Weber's $110m, 14-year contract with Nashville and Sidney Crosby's 12-year contract worth $104.4m with Pittsburgh. MacKinnon has played his entire nine-year NHL career in Colorado thus far.
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“Obviously it’s really cool, for sure,” MacKinnon said of being the highest-paid player in hockey. "Hoping there’s no more pandemics and the cap goes up even more, but, yeah, I think the term was the most important thing.
“I just wanted to be here for the rest of my career and hopefully I get another deal after this, too.”
MacKinnon was a key player as the Avalanche stormed to their first NHL championship since 2001. He led the team with 13 goals in the playoffs to go with 11 assists, while he scored and assisted in the Stanley Cup-clinching Game 6 win over the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Since 2017-18, MacKinnon has produced 167 goals and 275 assists (442 points) in 338 games. In the playoffs, MacKinnon has 90 points in 73 career games.
