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The Florida Panthers capped off another spectacular NHL season this year with the franchise’s second championship in a row. As star defenseman Aaron Ekblad hoisted up the Stanley Cup, he probably thought, “You know what? Life is pretty good here. I think I’ll stick around for a while.”
Perhaps that wasn’t an exact quote, but Ekblad has no plans to leave Florida anytime soon. He just agreed to an eight-year contract extension with the Panthers. The new deal has an average annual value of $6.1 million, paying Ekblad a grand total of $48.8 million.
It’s an impressive chunk of change, to be sure. But it’s wild to compare it to some of the NBA’s deals—even for brand new rookies who haven’t played a single NBA game.
Bruce Bennett/Getty Images
Ekblad was the No. 1 pick in the 2014 NHL Draft. He’s put up 118 goals and 380 points across 732 career games, a key piece of their blue line. Let’s compare him to Cooper Flagg, who the Dallas Mavericks just selected with the first pick of this year’s NBA Draft.
Flagg’s rookie deal will be for four years, and he’ll earn a little over $62.7 million. His year one salary alone is north of $13.8 million, more than double Ekblad’s average annual value. In fact, the Nos. 2 and 3 picks, Dylan Harper and V.J. Edgecombe, will also both make more in their rookie deals than Ekblad will over his entire eight-year contract.
If we break the contracts down by average annual value, Ekblad’s $6.1 million is less than the top 12 picks of the NBA draft. NBA salaries are often backloaded, so players make more money in the later years of a deal. Even so, nine rookies are guaranteed to make more than $6.1 million this year, despite none of them having stepped on an NBA court yet.
Granted, this is kind of a silly exercise. The NBA has far more of a global presence than the NHL, and the former’s salary cap has ballooned in recent years thanks to lucrative television and streaming deals. Ekblad also took a hometown discount to remain with the Panthers; he likely could have scored a larger deal in free agency.
Still, it’s wild to see a star in the NHL make less than several incoming rookies, and far less than the average NBA salary of about $9.19 million.
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