The tax conversation around the NHL isn’t fading anytime soon, and Colorado keeps landing in the middle of it.
A recent graphic tied to Cardinal Point, a financial advisory firm focused on cross-border taxation, laid out what a $10 million salary can look like after taxes in different NHL markets. For the Avalanche, the result is a favorable one - just not the most favorable in the league. Colorado comes in eighth-lowest in total taxes on the chart, with an estimated 40.97% tax rate on a $10 million salary.
That puts the Avalanche ahead of plenty of teams, including many in the Eastern Conference, all seven Canadian clubs, and high-tax markets such as California and New York. Even after jock taxes are included, Colorado still grades well, ranking 10th-lowest according to Jock Taxes.
But the picture changes once you zoom out. A second graphic from Jock Taxes notes that players also pay “jock taxes” based on where games are played, which makes the real tax hit more complicated than a simple team-by-team comparison.
Even so, the broad outline is hard to miss. The highest-tax markets are dominated by Canadian franchises, with California teams and the New York Rangers also in that group. At the other end of the scale sit the league’s most tax-friendly spots: the Golden Knights, Panthers, Lightning, and Stars.
Those four teams have also been central figures in the NHL’s recent championship landscape. Since 2020, they’ve combined to win five of the last seven Stanley Cups and have made nine Stanley Cup Final appearances in that span.
That’s why the tax debate keeps coming back. In the flat-cap years from 2020 to 2025, every dollar mattered more, and the advantage of playing in a low-tax state became a bigger part of the conversation.
Whether that edge is decisive or just one factor among many is still up for argument. But as long as low-tax teams keep stacking wins, the issue isn’t going anywhere.
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