As the Stanley Cup final odds are heating up - and handicappers at 888sport put up lines for each game - it’s easy to wonder about the less heralded men who skate flawlessly on the ice. We’re talking about NHL referees.
Unlike officiating in other sports, refereeing hockey games requires serious physicality. It rivals that of the players.
Hockey officials keep themselves in peak physical condition in order to maintain the stamina required to skate virtually nonstop for the 60 minutes of play that comprise professional hockey games.
The hard work and discipline – not to mention a willingness to sustain injuries, which are said to average 1.5 per season; in March 2024, referee Kevin Pollock suffered a career eclipsing bash when a player knocked him down and destroyed his right knee – pay off financially.
How Much Do NHL Refs Earn?
NHL referees can earn from $165,000 to $400,000 per year. Payment per game is in the range of $1,500 to $3,000.
For comparison’s sake, baseball umpires earn from $150,000 to $450,000 and they don’t take the kinds of bone-crushing knocks that their brethren in the NHL are vulnerable to. But the NHL guys get to, essentially, skate for a living.
Like the hockey players that they judge, NHL refs do not immediately go to the big time. They cut their teeth in youth leagues where the rate of pay is $20 to $50 per game.
Pay-rates double for high school games, going to as much as $100 per outing. At the college and semi pro levels, which reside a large notch below the NHL, refs can expect to make between $100 and $300 per game.
NHL Linesman Salary
While referees are all over the ice and often need to avoid oncoming players, linesmen are officials of a different stripe. They stand at the blue line and make calls for infractions that take place in that area.
They penalize players for things like icing and offside. If the job sounds easy, it’s not exactly.
Linesmen also the ones who are responsible for jumping in and breaking up fights that seem to be a large part of the game (so much so that some fans obsessively collect footage of wild hockey brawls).
For all of that, the linesmen can expect to earn in the region of $110,000 to $235,000.
NHL Referee Salary vs NHL Player Salary
While it sounds like refs make pretty good money, even the top officials earn considerably less than the lowest paid NHL players.
Minimum salary for a hockey pro is $750,000. It goes up considerably from there. At the high-end, annual pay reaches arena rafters. This season, overall compensation for Nathan MacKinnon, who plays for the Colorado Avalanche and ranks as the highest paid man in the sport, stands at $16.5 million.
Considering that most NHL refs once harbored professional hockey ambitions, the salary disparity must be a bit of a bummer - even with those in unpopular ice hockey positions earning much greater sums of money each season.
Beyond that, the lifestyle is less than glamorous. Refs fly commercial, log as many as 200,000 air miles per season and can spend half the year in hotel rooms.
For all their trouble, they invariably get booed by 20,000 worked-up fans and frustrated gamblers who disagree with calls being made against key players. “You have to laugh it off,” NHL ref Corey Syvret told The Score. “You’re never going to please everybody, so it’s really something you have to embrace.”
Surely, a 400K salary helps to cushion the blow.
*Credit for the main photo belongs to Alamy*
