Bobby Orr becomes first NHL ‘millionaire’ at age 23
In 1971, at 23 years of age, Bobby Orr signed what was described as the first million-dollar contract in the National Hockey League.
Orr, a defenceman for the Boston Bruins, had just finished second in league scoring with 139 points, behind teammate Phil Esposito. It’s a record that still stands for defencemen. Orr had also won his fourth Norris Trophy.
At a news conference, Orr was asked whether the five-year deal made him the highest-paid player in NHL history.
“You can assume whatever you want,” Orr said cryptically in a story that ran in The Vancouver Sun on Aug. 26.
No details were released about the contract. It was believed that Orr had made between $35,000 and $40,000 the previous year.
One person who wasn’t reluctant to speak was Alan Eagleson, Orr’s agent and head of the NHL Players’ Association. At the time, Orr trusted him. A few years earlier in 1966, Eagleson had negotiated the 18-year-old Orr’s first contract with Boston.
“I think that would be a safe assumption,” he said about whether Orr’s million-dollar contract made him the highest paid in the NHL. “We’ve always said that Bobby would be a millionaire before he was 30. I think he will before then.”
The next year, Boston won the Stanley Cup for a second time with Orr.
Orr’s deal wasn’t for $1 million a year — it was for $200,000 a year over five years, including endorsements. Arguably, the first real million-dollar hockey player was Bobby Hull, who was paid $1 million up front in 1972 for a 10year deal worth $2.75 million in the World Hockey Association, the short-lived professional rival to the NHL.
Wages today in the NHL are far, far higher than they were during Orr’s era. Sidney Crosby, for example, will make $15.4 million with the Pittsburgh Penguins this year, which includes $4.5 million from endorsements, according to Forbes. His salary dropped to second place under the terms of a $104.4-million deal he signed in 2012. The highest-paid player in the NHL is Jonathan Toews of the Chicago Blackhawks, who will make $16 million in salary and endorsements.
Eagleson was instrumental in bringing player wages in the NHL out of the dark ages. After he negotiated the first contract between Orr and the Boston Bruins, other NHL players contacted him about negotiating their own contracts. He was the first executive director of the NHL Players’ Association.
But Eagleson fell from grace by his own hand. Years later, an investigation by Russ Conway, the sports editor at a U.S. newspaper, eventually led to Eagleson being charged with multiple counts of fraud in Canada and the U.S. He served six months in prison in Toronto and was removed from the Order of Canada and forced to resign from the Hockey Hall of Fame.
By 1990, Orr was in financial trouble and no longer speaking to Eagleson. He had followed Eagleson’s financial advice, but found himself with tax bills that nearly bankrupted him. He started working as a player agent and incorporated Orr Hockey Group in 2002.
According to Sports Illustrated, Orr doesn’t get involved in negotiations, but acts as an “all-around adviser, player counsellor, exemplar and conversation stopper” — meaning that when players hear that the highly respected Orr wants to represent them, they stop looking for any other agent.
Players currently represented by OHG include Connor McDavid, Patrick Sharp and Zack Kassian.