2026 Milan-Cortina Olympics: Here’s the NHL salary cap of Team Canada’s men’s hockey roster
Team Canada announced the men’s hockey roster for the 2026 Olympics last week and the debates immediately began about the snubs and how the team stacks up to other rosters.
I’ve already gone over what Canada’s B-team could look like at the Olympics, so now I’m mixing it up with a completely useless, but interesting (in my mind) question: what would the projected salary cap hit be for Team Canada in the NHL this season?
Buckle up because I’m dusting off my very rarely used calculator and crunching the numbers. Let’s dive in.
Olympic men’s hockey odds
Boasting a roster with a projected cap hit of ***SPOILER ALERT*** a little under $200M, Team Canada enters the Olympics as a +120 favourite to win gold, followed by Team USA (+200), Team Sweden (+600) and Team Finland (+1100).
Forwards – $115,525,000
| Player | Team/Position | AAV |
|---|---|---|
| Nathan MacKinnon | COL/C | $12.6M |
| Connor McDavid | EDM/C | $12.5M |
| Mitch Marner | VGK/RW | $12M |
| Brayden Point | TBL/C | $9.5M |
| Mark Stone | VGK/RW | $9.5M |
| Sidney Crosby | PIT/C | $8.7M |
| Sam Reinhart | FLA/C | $8.625M |
| Bo Horvat | NYI/C | $8.5M |
| Nick Suzuki | MTL/C | $7.875M |
| Tom Wilson | WSH/RW | $6.75M |
| Brandon Hagel | TBL/LW | $6.5M |
| Anthony Cirelli | TBL/C | $6.25M |
| Brad Marchand | FLA/LW | $5.25M |
| Macklin Celebrini | SJS/C | $975,000 |
Canada’s forward group is absolutely stacked with high-end contracts, but when you dig deeper, you find only three players (Nathan MacKinnon, Connor McDavid, Mitch Marner) rank within the top-10 highest paid players in the NHL this season.
The average annual value or salary cap hit of the Canadian forwards is a little over $8M in 2025-26. That number is brought down significantly because of Macklin Celebrini’s rookie contract, which holds an AAV of just under $1M.
For a little more context, Team Canada’s forward group alone holds a $115.53M cap hit. That’s higher than every NHL team’s cap hit for their entire roster, with the Vegas Golden Knights icing a league-high $107.18M team.
Defencemen – $57,675,000
| Player | Team/Position | AAV |
|---|---|---|
| Drew Doughty | LAK/RD | $11M |
| Cale Makar | COL/RD | $9M |
| Shea Theodore | VGK/LD | $7.425M |
| Devon Toews | COL/LD | $7.25M |
| Colton Parayko | STL/RD | $6.5M |
| Josh Morrissey | WPG/LD | $6.25M |
| Travis Sanheim | PHI/LD | $6.25M |
| Thomas Harley | DAL/LD | $4M |
While Canada’s forwards are clearly living the life of luxury, their defencemen aren’t exactly going hungry either. Drew Doughty is the second-highest paid defenceman in the NHL this season and the combined AAV of the group is $7.2M.
And keep in mind, that $7.2M number will actually look like a bargain over the next year or two. Thomas Harley’s AAV will go from $4M this season to $10.59M next year, while Cale Makar is in line for a significant raise from his $9M AAV in two years.
Goalies – $17,100,000
| Player | Team/Catches | AAV |
|---|---|---|
| Jordan Binnington | STL/L | $6M |
| Logan Thompson | WSH/R | $5.85M |
| Darcy Kuemper | LAK/L | $5.25M |
Canada went relatively bargain hunting with their goalies when you look at the highest paid netminders in the NHL. Jordan Binnington’s $6M AAV is the highest among the Canadian goaltenders, but that number ranks 14th among NHL netminders this season.
Total roster salary – $190,300,000
The total projected cap hit for Team Canada’s roster in the NHL this season is a whopping $190.3M.
That’s an astronomical number when you consider it is more than double the cap hit of 20 NHL teams. You could literally combine the entire rosters of the Colorado Avalanche ($94.82M cap hit) and the Minnesota Wild ($93.16M cap hit) for less than Canada’s cap hit.
If you take one thing from this totally unnecessary exercise, it’s this team got paid, now it’s time to win gold.