I think McDavid is worth more than Kucherov, for forwards, but that's about it.The Lightning, Penguins, and Capitals have won 5 of the last 6 cups with a player making $9.5M. You don't believe it's possible for another player to be worth even 500-750k more from a team standpoint than Kucherov, Vasilevskiy, Malkin or Ovechkin? Malkin's 9.5M in 2016 is equivalent to 10.84M today.
So you don't think that Patrick Kane is worth 10mil?10+ easily.
McDavid, Draisaitl, Mackinnon, Matthews, Barkov, Kucherov, Hedman, Panarin, Makar, and Vasilevsky are all easily worth 10 mil IMO.
Then you can throw in a bunch of players that can be arguable like Point, Aho, etc.
edit: misread the thread. Out of the players making over $10 mil, not many. 3/13 (McDavid, Matthew, Panarin. 4 if Eichel comes back without missing a step).
This train of thought is difficult for me to follow. Where do you think the money's coming from? People watching the product. Or would you prefer the owners to get it and the actual players to be left with the scraps?Zero of course. Insane amount of money for doing something utterly pointless in the grand scheme of things.
Kopitars lead his team in scoring for something ridiculous like the past 13 season, an nhl record. All while being one of the best defensive centers in the league. The kings suck recently, but make no mistake it is in no way a reflection on kopitar. PPG player this year at the ripe age of 34, hasnt dropped off a bit and carries his team at both ends. Hes still the best player on the ice from both teams most nightsTo look at it another way - how can a guy like Kopitar be worth 10m when Barkov and MacKinnon are worth 6m? Sure, they're underpaid by NHL standards, but there's a lot of underpays out there.
There's 8 forwards making 10m+. Out of the 8 highest points producers in the last 3 seasons, only 4 of the 10m club are in it - McDavid, Kane, Panarin, Marner. If you wanna handwave and add in the near misses, you get Matthews. Next closest is Tavares, joint 20th scorer with 198 points... but that's not even a ppg pace for him. There were 21 ppg forwards last season, Patches was the median point at 7m, so the idea that 10m should at the very least get you ppg seems fair to me. If you want to do top 8 ppg over the last 3 seasons, then Marner drops out, and Matthews and Eichel are close too.
So I think the forwards with a shout of being worth the money right now are McDavid, Kane, Panarin, Marner, and Matthews. Tavares and Eichel are close, but I don't think should be getting 10m comparatively as things stand. Kopitar and Toews aren't close, although maybe they would be on better teams.
And it's super clear that the highest paid dmen and goalies are the wrong guys right now, albeit with beliefs that maybe they could all be a lot closer if the pendulum swung back that way.
Stealing @bobholly39 format
McDavid - Yes
Panarin - Biased yes, I think he's worth his pay.
Matthews - easily
Karlsson - Nope. He was before the contract but not lately.
Doughty - Nope.
Tavares - Nope. He's not someone you win with, he shouldn't get paid like it
Marner - No way Jose. Regular season yes, playoffs def no.
Kane - Yes. Easily.
Toews - Maybe? Cup wins mean yes but lately no.
Price - overall no. When he's on his game yes but way too inconsistent.
Bob - Obvious no.
Kopitar - Easy yes.
Eichel - Yes.
Before I broke it down I though maybe 2-4 but once I looked at each name it's closer to 6-7 for me.