Trevor Zegras' new contract with Flyers sign of rising salaries in NHL

But now? This offseason? In this market?

That is starting to border on small potatoes. 

At least relatively speaking.

Just consider that the Chicago Blackhawks gave defenseman Bowen Byram, a good, but not great player, a $12.5 million extension over the next six years. That makes him one of the highest-paid defenders in the NHL. 

Also consider the Flyers attempted to sign restricted free agent forward Leo Carlsson away from the Anaheim Ducks with a five-year, $90 million contract extension that makes Carlsson the highest-paid player in the NHL (the Ducks matched the offer sheet and retained Carlsson). 

Along with that, the Ducks had to pay fellow restricted free agent defenseman Pavel Mintyukov more than $7 million per season even though he's never established himself as a top-pairing player and has significant flaws to his game. That contract was pretty much identical to the one Simon Nemec, a nearly identical player, signed with the Calgary Flames.

All of these numbers are likely to seem small when players like Connor Bedard (Blackhawks), Macklin Celebrini (San Jose Sharks) and Cale Makar (Colorado Avalanche) start signing new deals in the coming weeks and months. 

For some perspective on all of this, Zegras' deal accounts for 8.7% of the $104 million salary cap this season. Next season when the cap goes up to $113 million, it will only account for 8%. 

Go back two years to when the league's salary cap was only $88 million. A contract that accounted for 8.7% of the cap would have only been a $7.6 million cap hit. A contract that accounted for 8% would have barely exceeded a $7 million cap hit. 

You are going to need to adjust your expectations for what NHL contracts are now going to look like.

Even with that being the case, the Zegras contract still seems like a small risk for the Flyers because there is still some doubt as to what type of player he is. The 2025-26 season was his first year with the Flyers, and it served as a great bounce-back year for him after two very down, and very bad years with the Ducks. The change of scenery and a fresh start was great for him offensively, while his shootout ability played a huge role in getting the Flyers back into the playoffs.

But there are still some concerns with his all-around play, his defensive play and his ability to control the game during 5-on-5 situations. He still has some big improvements to make, and his ability to make them will go a long way toward determining the success or failure of this deal.