These highest paid hockey players have their eyes on the puck AND their multi-million dollar contracts.
The highest paid hockey players may not quite be bringing in the same sums as some NFL or NBA players, but they still make a pretty penny.
The National Hockey League (NHL) was founded in Montreal in 1917 and is still the most popular sport in Canada and one of the most watched in the US. In 2005, the NHL was shut down for 310 days over a supposed ‘salary cap’ that was going to be enforced on players, making it the only sporting league to be closed for an entire season.
The big players still secure major contracts though, worth millions of dollars, and can reach an international audience through Winter olympics and world championship games.
We also made this video on the richest hockey players in the world you might want to watch!
15. Derek Stepan – $8 million earnings
25 year-old Derek Stepan has been playing since 2010, when he signed a contract with the New York Rangers which made him one of the highest paid hockey players in the world.
Impressively, Stepan scored a hat-trick in his very first professional game, making him the only rookie in NHL history to do so. He also plays internationally, representing the United States since 2010, and at the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. He earns about $8 million a year with the Rangers, and just signed a 6-year contract with them for $39 million.
