We’re two weeks away from the 2022 NHL All-Star Weekend, when hockey’s hottest and highest-paid players gather in Las Vegas for a weekend of joy.

But at a time when the league and its players are scrambling to rebalance the books after pandemic-related revenue losses of more than $1 billion, it’s arguable that this year’s real All-Stars are the additional players who make big contributions to their salary-strapped clubs, while earning relatively low wages.

Young stars in entry-level contracts fit that bill. Under the terms of the collective agreement, their costs are controlled for their first three NHL seasons, which is part of the reason why so many young players are now playing an important role for their teams.

This list covers the next tier – players who are past the entry-level stage, but are offering pay grades well above their current pay grades.

Here is an All-Star team of these players.

All salary information courtesy of CapFriendly. Cost per point/win calculations are based on each player’s production to date, compared to their full season salary. Statistics are current through Saturday, January 22.

Attackers

Carter Verhaeghe – Florida Panthers

• Hit hit: $1,000,000
• Stat Line: 40 GP – 14-19-33
• Cost per point: $30,303

Now 26, Verhaeghe entered the NHL as the third-round pick of the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2013. He worked for years in the minors and eventually made his debut for the Tampa Bay Lightning in the 2019-20 season, where he won a Stanley. Cup ring.

Next, Verhaeghe moved to the Florida Panthers, signing a two-year contract. With a regular role in a growing team, he exploded with 18 goals and 36 points last season, and is on a similar pace this year.

Verhaeghe won’t be underpaid for much longer. Last July, the Panthers rewarded him for his escape with a three-year contract extension. It will come into effect next fall and has a cap of $4.167 million per year.

Tanner Jeannot – Nashville Predators

• Hit hit: $800,000
• Stat Line: 43 GP – 13-12-25
• Cost per point: $32,000

Undrafted from the Western Hockey League, big winger Tanner Jeannot signed with the Nashville Predators as a free agent in 2018 at the age of 21. He spent two seasons in the minors before making his NHL debut last season, adjusting to 15 regulars. season and five playoff games.

This year, Jeannot’s 13 goals put him tied for third in that category over the surprising Predators, who hold a playoff spot in the tough Central Division. And Jeannot’s contributions go beyond scoring; he is also fourth in the NHL in hits and third in penalty minutes. His eight fights this season are second in the league.

Jeannot is under contract for an additional season at his advantageous rate of $800,000. After that, he will be a restricted free agent with arbitration rights.

His forward-thinking style of play will earn him a huge raise if he keeps doing what he’s been doing.

Evan Rodrigues – Pittsburgh Penguins

• Hit hit: $1,000,000
• Stat Line: 40 GP – 15-15-30
• Cost per point: $33,333

Now 28, Evan Rodrigues got his NHL break when he signed as a free agent with the Buffalo Sabers after four years at Boston University. At Buffalo, he peaked with 29 points in 74 games in the 2018-19 season.

Rodrigues was dealt to the Pittsburgh Penguins, along with Conor Sheary, at the 2020 trade deadline. After the playoff bubble, he was traded to Toronto again. But when the Leafs declined to issue a qualifying offer based on his previous $2 million contract, Rodrigues became an unrestricted free agent.

He returned to Pittsburgh, signing a one-year NHL minimum contract of $700,000, and had a respectable 14 points in 35 games during the shortened 2020-21 season. The Penguins brought it back, this time to $1 million, and this season Rodrigues took full advantage of the ice time that was available while the Penguins treated injuries to their forward group.

Despite their injuries, the Penguins have kept pace in the Metropolitan Division and look set to make the playoffs for an NHL-high 16th straight season.

Rodrigues will once again be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the year. If he can keep scoring important goals throughout the playoffs, he’ll get a significant raise this summer as well.

Defense

Tony DeAngelo – Carolina Hurricanes

• Hit hit: $1,000,000
• Stat Line: 31 GP – 7-25-32
• Cost per point: $31,250

DeAngelo came to the NHL with a solid hockey pedigree, as the Tampa Bay Lightning’s first-round draft pick in 2014. But after just a year as a minor, the right-handed defenseman was traded to Arizona for a second. – round draft pick. A year later, he was sent to the New York Rangers.

After a 53-point campaign on Broadway in the 2019-20 season, DeAngelo signed a big two-year contract with the Rangers, carrying a cap of $4.8 million per season. But after playing just six games under his new contract, he was suspended by the team due to a reported physical altercation with teammate Alexandar Georgiev – the final straw after a series of other disciplinary issues .

Unable to trade DeAngelo, the Rangers bought him last summer. The 25-year-old received a third of the $5.3 million worth of the second year of his contract, split over two years ($883,334 per season).

With questions lingering over whether he could be a good teammate, DeAngelo signed a one-year, $1million deal with the Carolina Hurricanes, who had a hole to fill after losing right-handed defenseman Dougie Hamilton to unrestricted free agency.

At $8 million off the cap than Hamilton commands in New Jersey this season, DeAngelo has fitted in very well and the Hurricanes are among the best teams in the league.

At the end of the season, he will once again be a restricted free agent with officiating rights — the same scenario that landed him his big payday in New York two years ago.

Oliver Kylington – Calgary Flames

• Hit hit: $750,000
• Stat Line: 35 GP – 4/15/19
• Cost per point: $39,473

A second-round draft pick of the Calgary Flames in 2015, Swedish defenseman Oliver Kylington needed time to become an everyday player in the NHL.

He has emphatically made the leap this season, grabbing a top-four role under coach Darryl Sutter. Kylington became the Flames’ most productive defenseman, with 17 of his 19 points at even strength. His underlying possession numbers are also solid.

Kylington had shown some scoring ability at the AHL level, but his NHL career high before this season was eight points in 38 games. Still at just 24, Kylington could still have more room to grow.

When Kylington signed his current one-year contract last August, he took a small pay cut from $787,500 to $750,000. As a restricted free agent with officiating rights, his progression will put him in a very different negotiating position this summer.

Goal

Kaapo Kahkonen – Minnesota Wild

• Hit hit: $725,000
• Stat Line: 13 GP – 9-2-2
• Cost per win: $80,556

Technically still a rookie, Kaapo Kahkonen has been trying his hand at starting with the Minnesota Wild for the past three weeks.

Cam Talbot had carried the majority of the load before sustaining an injury in the Winter Classic on New Years Day. In his absence, the 25-year-old Kahkonen rode a 5-0-1 streak that kept the Wild in the Central Division playoff draw.

Originally drafted in the fourth round in 2014, Kahkonen came to North America from his native Finland four years later and began his apprenticeship with the AHL’s Iowa Wild. Last season, he came on as a backup at Minnesota and went 16-8-0 in 24 appearances.

Kahkonen is in the second and final year of his current contract — and this is his first North American season on a one-way contract, where he wouldn’t have received a lower salary had he been reassigned to the AHL.

The way he plays now, those days are over. But with a big capitalization crunch looming for the Wild next season following their buyouts of Ryan Suter and Zach Parise, and with Talbot still under contract for one more season, will there be a way to re- to sign the young cap at market value after this escape campaign?