Can you explain how the players' salaries work? I just saw that Auston Matthews getting something like 11.6 millions$ per year, but I don't really understand how they break it down... (something about SB and salary or something) Thank you very much A new(ish) hockey fan who is a little bit confused!
So the 11.6 mil a year is actually his Cap hit/AAV and is not what he makes per year. This is the money that the team is responsible for against their cap each season. A cap hit is going to be the average of every year spread out across the entirety of the contract.
For instance in Auston’s first season on this contract, the 2019-20 season he will be making 15.2 million in signing bonuses and an extra 700k in Base Salary which comes out to 15.9 Mil in total salary for that year. In his last season on this contract, the 2023-24 season, He will be making 7.2 million in signing bonuses and 750k in base salary which comes out to 7.95 in total salary for that season. And each season in between is a little bit different.
The reason the cap hit is an average of these numbers is so you don’t have teams signing their best players to ridiculously front loaded deals. Back in 2012 (right before the lock out) Shea Weber signed a 14 year deal worth 110 Million dollars over the span of that time. In his first season on that deal he was going to make 13 million dollars in signing bonuses and 1 million in base pay. In 2016-17 that number dropped to 8 million in signing bonuses and 4 million in base salary for a total of 12 million dollars. This number drops AGAIN two years later to 0 dollars in signing bonuses and 6 million dollars in base salary. The way the NHL worked back when this contract was signed was that the caphit was what you paid that year and to the Nashville predators, having shea weber for 14 years and getting to pay him 6 million and below for 8 years of it was a steal. However then the 2013 lockout hit and contracts like these became completely illegal, and the NHL introduced the AAV (average annual value/salary) which became the new cap hit. So while Auston Matthews is going to pocket 15.9 mil in cash this year his cap hit is going to be 11.6 mil.
Teams will also do this because they still make contracts easier to trade. Even though teams will have to take on the AAV regardless of where in the contract the player is, some teams do not have the actual money to pay them. So if Auston was to be traded to a team with less moeny than the leafs, which is most of them, the team would only need to pay him 7.95 mil in the later years of his contract instead of the 15.9mil even though they have to take the entirety of the 11.6 onto their cap.
That all got pretty complicated but I hope it was understandable? You can ask follow up questions if you’re still confused!
