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Wayne Gretzky - Mario Lemieux

Mario Lemieux missed the first 50 games of the 1990-1991 season with a back injury, and fell second to Wayne Gretzky as the best-paid NHLer, but won his first Stanley Cup and was named playoff's MVP. Wayne Gretzky was points leader for the league while Brett Hull was the best scorer with 86 goals. 7 players were now making more than a million per season, up from 2 the previous year.

  vs previous season
Rank Player NHL Salary ($US) In today's  $  +/- ($) +/- (%)  
1 Wayne Gretzky $3,000,000 $6,954,692 $1,280,000 74%
2 Mario Lemieux $2,500,000 $5,795,576    
3 Scott Stevens $2,175,000 $5,042,151 $1,875,000 625%
4 Steve Yzerman $1,800,000 $4,172,815    
5 Brett Hull $1,766,000 $4,093,995 $1,641,000 1313%
6 Chris Chelios $1,100,000 $2,550,054 $170,500 18%
6 Raymond Bourque $1,100,000 $2,550,054 $600,000 120%
8 Paul Coffey $900,000 $2,086,407 $450,000 100%
9 Mark Messier $824,434 $1,911,228 -$12,708 -2%
10 Denis Savard $792,725 $1,837,719 $267,725 51%
11 Cam Neely $750,000 $1,738,673 $425,000 131%
11 Rick Tocchet $750,000 $1,738,673 $500,000 200%
11 Steve Larmer $750,000 $1,738,673 $485,000 183%
14 Bryan Trottier $720,000 $1,669,126 -$80,000 -10%
15 Al MacInnis $685,600 $1,589,379 $241,975 55%
16 Brian Bellows $675,000 $1,564,806 $375,000 125%
17 Patrick Roy $668,460 $1,549,644 $414,960 164%
18 Ron Hextall $660,000 $1,530,032 $160,000 32%
19 James Patrick $650,000 $1,506,850 $335,000 106%
20 Stephane Richer $642,750 $1,490,043 $410,375 177%
21 Kevin Hatcher $600,000 $1,390,938 $415,000 224%
21 Viacheslav Fetisov $600,000 $1,390,938    
23 Mark Howe $563,000 $1,305,164 $138,000 32%
24 Peter Stastny $560,000 $1,298,209 $154,400 38%
25 Doug Wilson $550,000 $1,275,027 $50,000 10%
25 Larry Robinson $550,000 $1,275,027    

Photo credit: Score and Upper Deck.