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15 of NHL’s highest paid players would get their money amid a lost season

Ryan Suter, Zach Parise

An impressive 15 out of the league’s 50 highest-paid players will see plenty of cash even if there’s a lost season as Bob McKenzie and others fear, according to USA Today.

They’ll get some or all of their money from NHL teams through a combination of factors: signing bonuses, injury pay or escrow.

To little surprise, this offseason’s splashiest acquisitions were among the players who are the best protected from a work stoppage. Kevin Allen goes into greater detail on a few:


  • Shea Weber will miss just $1 million in salary while receiving his hefty $13 million bonus if there’s no season; Ryan Suter and Zach Parise’s $10 million bonuses will keep them cozy.
  • Slightly less recent guys are covered too, as Tyler Myers and Brad Richards are among the NHLers who will sweat the lockout the least thanks to similar bonuses.
  • Injury-wise, Marian Gaborik will receive a hefty sum as long as doctors don’t clear him to play. Concussion problems will mean steady paychecks for guys like Marc Savard and Chris Pronger, too.

On the other hand, there are guys who can relate to Mike Modano and Jeremy Roenick because of the big salaries they’d miss out on if 2012-13 is erased altogether.

Ilya Kovalchuk leads the pack with a $11 million salary while Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin would lose $9 million, or a sobering $692K per paycheck, Allen reports.

No wonder Ovechkin is making those big threats.