Super Star Mega Contracts in Salary Cap Don't Make Every Player Rich

There seems to be a belief in within some circles of sports media that when a super star athlete gets an exceptionally large contract that other less skilled players in the league get richer. In theory if the ceiling gets pushed higher, other normal players will be able to negotiate more on their next contracts. When Connor McDavid signed his 8 year $100M contract in July 2017, hosts on Vancouver sports radio were congratulating other NHLers for getting richer. Guys who had nothing to do with McDavid and were not close to his skill level were being told that they'd make more money on their next contract because the best player in the league just struck a giant deal.

In a league with a salary cap, that notion does not make sense. McDavid's contract simply raised the ceiling for the very few who have a comparable skill level. That's a short list. It's not going to make middling players more money, quite the opposite. A salary cap means that players are sharing a pie that is a fixed size. If McDavid takes a bigger piece of pie, then that's less pie for everyone else. The only way that other players get more pie is in the growth of hockey related revenues. That's the only way to make the pie bigger under the NHL's collective bargaining agreement.

This summer Auston Matthews is in a position to push the ceiling upwards even further. The maximum amount that a player is allowed to sign for is 20% of the salary cap, which zero players have received since the cap's inception. McDavid's contract came in at under 17% of the cap, so technically he did leave some money on the table. Sidney Crosby's last contract started under 14% of the cap (although that was a 12 year back dive that is now illegal). We have not seen a single super star hockey player take the maximum amount of annual salary, but Auston could do so.

If Matthews sets a new ceiling this summer, that won't mean every single player got richer. Other Leaf players negotiating new contracts afterwards are going to feel the pinch. They'll be told the team can't possibly meet their demand because they are paying all that money to Matthews and Tavares. The only way Auston makes his teammates richer is to sign for a discount, leaving more for the team to spend on the rest of the roster. He may have to take less because the team is likely going to have cap problems, but that's a different matter entirely.

Patrik Laine will also be signing a new contract this summer, and he could push the ceiling for elite goal scorers, but that won't make other non-snipers richer. Players need to have similar statistics to Laine if they are going to argue to an arbitrator that they deserve the same salary. His tier of top goal scorers could get a boost, but not everyone in the league. If he takes more pie, there's less for others to eat, unless revenues go up and the cap goes up.