Morning Skate: Big money

It is Wednesday, my dudes.

Yesterday was a surprisingly news-y day in the hockey world, with Pekka Rinne retiring, the Predators possibly leaving Mat Duchene exposed during the Expansion Draft, Gabriel Landeskog and the Avalanche supposedly far apart on an extension, and the Minnesota Wild’s buy-out fever.

The latter was probably the biggest news in terms of unexpected things, and it led to the sharing of a surprising stat (or surprising to me, at least).

I can’t remember where I saw it, but I read on Twitter that Zach Parise was extremely high up on the list of highest career earners in the NHL, which caught me off guard.

It’s easy to forget that the deal he signed with the Wild was worth nearly $100 million, and he had earned plenty prior to that too.

So I went over the ol’ reliable, CapFriendly, and lo and behold, Parise is listed as 9th in estimated career earnings (to date) at more than $107 million.

I think I found this surprising because I don’t know that Parise was ever really the clear-cut #1 in the league at his position, or even a bona fide superstar.

He’s always been a good player, but has he ever really been truly elite or in a class by himself? You could make such an argument for the guys ahead of him on the list (in ascending order: Thornton, Pronger, Malkin, Lecavalier, Weber, Ovechkin, Jagr, Crosby).

Anyways, good for Parise. Can’t fault him for getting his money, and he’s likely to get more of it from a new team too.

The highest-ranked Bruin on the list? Patrice Bergeron, coming in 26th place at around $90.5 million.

Worth every penny!

Today’s discussion topic

It’s wild to me that Jagr’s prime was in a relatively low era for salaries, yet he still places second on the list.

Some of that is due to longevity, but most of it is due to being incredibly good at the start of the 2000s.

Anyways, other than Bergeron and Thornton, four former Bruins crack the top 30. Without looking, can you name them?