Hurricanes: 80.8m DNHL Salary vs 108.2m in NHL Salary
C Anze Kopitar, $8.3m (2020-2021) 10M (2023-24)
C John Tavares, $8.3m (2021-2022) 5.5m (2017-18)
C Atrem Anisimov, $3.5m (2018-2019) 4.6m (2020-21)
C Colton Sissons, $0.9m (2018-2019) .6m (2018-19)
C Elias Lindholm, $2.3m (2020-2021) 2.7m (2017-18)
C Derek Ryan, $0.9m (2018-2019) 1.4m (2017-18)
D Jeff Petry, $1.3m (2017-2018) 5.5m (2020-21)
D Justin Faulk, $2m (2018-2019) 4.8m (2019-20)
D Ryan Murphy, $0.5m (2018-2019) .7m (2017-18)
D Dougie Hamilton, $2.5m (2019-2020) 5.8m (2020-21)
D Jared Spurgeon, $3.8m (2020-2021) 5.2m (2019-20)
D John Klingberg, $6m (2018-2019) 4.3m (2021-22)
D Seth Jones, $2m (2020-2021) 5.4m (2021-22)
D Ryan Pulock, $0.5m (P-n/a) .9m (2017-18)
D Victor Mete, $0.9m (2018-2019) .7m (2019-20)
G Marc-Andre Fleury, $6.3m (2019-2020) 5.8m (2018-19)
G John Gibson, $0.2m (P-17/18) 2.3m (2018-19)
G Scott Wedgewood, $0.5m (P-n/a) .7m (2017-18)
G Andrew Hammond, $0.2m (P-17/18) 1.4m (2017-18)
LW James Neal, $6.8m (2021-2022) 5m (2017-18)
LW Brendan Perlini, $2.7m (2018-2019) .9m (2018-19)
LW Johnny Gaudreau, $4.8m (2021-2022) 6.8m (2021-22)
LW Pat Maroon, $2m (2020-2021) 2m (2017-18)
RW Marian Gaborik, $0.5m (2018-2019) 4.9m (2020-21)
RW Phil Kessel, $5.6m (2019-2020) 8m (2021-22)
RW Brett Ritchie, $0.2m (P-18/19) 1.8m (2018-19)
RW Cam Atkinson, $2m (2019-2020) 5.9m (2022-23)
RW Brent Burns, $5.9m (2020-2021) 8m (2022-23)
RW Bryan Rust, $0.9m (2018-2019) .6m (2017-18)
Broad stroke differences between us and the NHL is that our d-man contracts were purposefully handcuffed like 30% maybe 40% since we don't pay for defense. Our prospect contracts really exacerbate that difference to NHL salaries. We also don't have 10 year contracts that end up haunting teams, so a guy like Gaborik is almost never going to make 4.9m into his late 30s. Also, our contracts are based on production. There can be only (1) #1 center in our league per year, so a guy like Kopitar is the NHL King's #1 center so he gets 10m a year, but he would have to be the entire DNHL's #1 center to get that kind of contract.
If you adjust for our reduced dman contracts my team looks like DNHL Salary of 80.8m vs NHL Salary of 95.81
Then my team is loaded with prospect dman contracts so that is another 30% off some DNHL Salary of 80.8m vs NHL Salary of 85.8m (6% difference)
Overall I would say that the NHL has changed since we instituted the 5 year prospect contract in that they are giving out more money to younger players. Since our prospect contracts act like a current NHL "bridge deal" we might want to knock a couple years off that 5 if we are trying to keep right on with the big league.