Thanks to the promise of cash, the prominence of the league, and the design of the draft system, the NHL has become the home of a huge collection of Europe’s best ice hockey players historically and currently.
Most of Europe’s most promising players make their way across the Atlantic, but there are only 32 rosters in the NHL, with stiff competition coming from Canadian and US players, too.
So, the top competitions across the continent have been able to maintain a high standard of play, helping teams to fund hefty salaries for top players and offer a professional pathway to youngsters and late bloomers.
What is the Highest-Paying League in European Ice Hockey?
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is the highest-paying ice hockey league in Europe on paper. When information was last made more accessible, annual salaries were said to range from £300,000 to £2.5 million.
The continued collapse of the Russian ruble and the locking off of information since the country’s invasion of Ukraine rightly throws these figures into dispute, as does the lack of top players choosing the KHL over the NHL.
It’s almost tradition for the KHL to either coax back a top Russian player on a hefty salary from the NHL or to build up a late bloomer and keep them for longer than expected thanks to their pay before they switch to North America.
You can see examples of this in the form of Pavel Datsyuk and Ilya Kovalchuk netting £3.4 million by going back to the KHL, and the £4.36 million secured by Alexander Radulov in 2016.
How Much Do European Hockey Leagues Pay?
Non-Russian European ice hockey leagues have comparatively lower brackets for pay than what was being reported for the KHL, but each can offer pretty hefty contracts to help compete domestically and on the continent.
Here’s how the other top-class ice hockey leagues of Europe rank for their player salary brackets:
- NLA, £50,000 to £340,000 (Switzerland)
- DEL, £75,000 to £295,000 (Germany)
- SHL, £70,000 to £255,000 (Sweden)
- Liiga, £65,000 to £255,000 (Finland)
- Extraliga, £40,000 to £210,000 (Czechia)
Full-time professionals in the British top tier of ice hockey, the EIHL, can look for up to £50,000 or around £25,000 as a home grown player. Major imports, however, are said to be able to collect up to £100,000 per season.
Unlike many other ice hockey leagues, the EIHL doesn’t follow the salary cap model leveraged by the NHL. So, teams with better finances can seek players demanding higher pay and improve their ice hockey odds for the title.
Teams across Europe can earn even more cash by competing beyond their core domestic league, unlike what you see with the NHL or other North American systems.
The CHL stands as essentially ice hockey’s equivalent of the UEFA Champions League, and many players will earn bonuses for performing in the prestigious competition.
NHL vs Europe: How Do the Leagues Compare for Salaries?
European pay scales and those of the NHL barely compare, with the minimum that an NHL player can be paid annually being $750,000 or around £555,000. The highest-paid players have a new bar to reach for, too.
The Minnesota Wild, now well in the mix for the playoffs in the online odds, agreed to a record-setting contract with Kirill Kaprizov. The Russian will get an average annual value of $17 million (£12.6m) in the eight-year deal.
Around the same time, Connor McDavid signed a more restrained two-year, $12.5 million (£9.3m) per season deal to try to propel his team to another Stanley Cup push after falling one series short twice in the last two years.
While there isn’t really an opportunity to earn seven figures each year (in GBP) in Europe’s top leagues beyond the elite-tier players, there’s still good money to be earned on the continent for playing ice hockey.
*Credit for the photos in this article belongs to Alamy*
