Despite their reputation for being a tight-fisted organization, the Minnesota Twins made baseball history on Nov. 22, 1989, when star outfielder Kirby Puckett signed a three-year contract that made him the highest-paid player in baseball history.<\/p>\n
The smiling slugger, who had already led Minnesota to one World Series title and would repeat that feat two years later, would be paid $3 million per season through 1992, which was the richest pact ever inked. But that distinction lasted barely a week, because on Dec. 1 of that year, California Angels pitcher Mark Langston signed for $3.25 million per season.<\/p>\n
Puckett, who died in 2006 with two World Series rings and was later a first-ballot Hall of Fame selection, never played a game as the highest-paid man in baseball.<\/p>\n
It was 10 months ago, after much consternation among the hungry Minnesota hockey fan base, that Kirill Kaprizov signed an eight-year contract worth $17 million annually starting this fall. On a late September afternoon, Kaprizov and general manager Bill Guerin met with media members at TRIA Rink to discuss the deal.<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you excited?\u201d Kaprizov was asked.<\/p>\n
But before Kaprizov could answer, Guerin interjected.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019d better \u2026 be,\u201d Guerin said.<\/p>\n
Kaprizov\u2019s run as the game\u2019s highest-paid player was a little longer than Puckett\u2019s, but the Wild star won\u2019t play a game as his league\u2019s most generously compensated player, either.<\/p>\n
Last week, after some offer sheet shenanigans by the Philadelphia Flyers forced their hand, the Anaheim Ducks signed center Leo Carlsson to a five-year contract that will pay him $18 million per season, guaranteed, through 2031. Last winter, former Gophers defenseman Jackson LaCombe became (at the time) the highest-paid player in Ducks history when he signed for $9 million per season.<\/p>\n
With the Wild hoping to sign star defenseman Quinn Hughes to an extension, some pundits have offered the notion of Minnesota paying him $18 million a season for a three-year term. If that happens, Kaprizov will no longer even be the highest-paid player on his own team.<\/p>\n
But with the league\u2019s salary cap on the rise, it\u2019s clear that the NHL\u2019s first $20 million contract is likely a year or two away, at most. Some are predicting that Colorado defenseman Cale Makar will get somewhere in the $18 million to $20 million range before the start of September\u2019s training camps.<\/p>\n
The rapid rise in high-end hockey salaries has been stark, and it illustrates the foresight Guerin made in wrapping up cornerstones such as defenseman Brock Faber and forward Matt Boldy to long-term deals at what now look like reasonable prices. Faber is making $8.5 million a year through 2033. Boldly is getting paid $7 million annually through 2030.<\/p>\n
There has been much talk of Detroit wanting Boldy as part of a Dylan Larkin trade, and of the Wild inquiring about New Jersey forward Jack Hughes (who is making $8 million per year through 2030) to reunite the brothers in St. Paul. Either move, according to one NHL source, would be difficult to pull off, as those players\u2019 current contracts make them even more prized for their fiscal value.<\/p>\n
According to various metrics that measure how much a team pays per on-ice point, Boldy and Jack Hughes have two of the best value contracts in hockey.<\/p>\n
Back at a baseball diamond in Minneapolis, 23 months after Puckett\u2019s brief stint as the richest man in baseball history, he scaled the Metrodome\u2019s fence in left-center to catch an impossible fly ball, then hit an extra-innings homer that won Game 6 of the 1991 World Series to set up the team\u2019s second world championship in a four-year span.<\/p>\n
More than three decades later, when parents bring their children to Target Field and show them the bronze statue of Puckett circling the bases after that Game 6 home run, it\u2019s unlikely his then-exorbitant salary will ever be mentioned.<\/p>\n
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