Oscar Fantenberg is now an ex-Canuck.
The depth defenceman signed on with SKA St. Petersburg of the KHL on Tuesday. A source confirmed his deal will pay him a base salary of US$325,000 this season, with performance bonuses that could net him a further US$65,000.
He will be paying a 13-per-cent tax on what he makes, which means that his base salary this year will be US$282,750, or $373,159 Cdn, give or take. That’s actually a little more than what he would have made had he signed with the Canucks for 2020-21, once you do all the math.
Who knows what else went into Fantenberg’s decision-making process, but it’s interesting to understand the financial dynamics at play.
We don’t know what NHL teams were offering him, but for argument’s sake, if he had signed on for the league-minimum salary, US$700,000, 28 per cent of his salary would be lopped off the top right away, first because of the players agreeing to defer 10 per cent of their salaries — which brings the salary down to US$630,000 — then because the players also agreed to 20-per-cent escrow this season, which is applied after the 10-per-cent deduction, and brings the actual paid-out salary to US$504,000. (Yes, that’s 28 per cent of the original figure.)
That’s $665,154 Cdn, give or take. He would be facing the maximum tax bracket, which in B.C. averages 47.45 per cent. Without looking into deductions, and he would have a few surely, his after-tax income, according to simpletax.ca’s calculator, would be $348,906 Cdn.
So, yes, he stood to make less here than in Russia.
Copyright Postmedia Network Inc., 2020
