The "middle-class" of NHL Forwards is a small group, and their production does not reach the level of the top paid players.

All data obtained using the PuckPedia.com Player Dashboard.

Of the Top 30 Points, other than 4 on Entry Level Deals (Marner, Point, Rantanen, Aho), there were no players with a cap hit less than Kucherov’s $4.77M. In the top 50 of points, only 3 (Couturier, Teravainen, Domi) had cap hit less than Kucherov's $4.77M other than those on Entry Level Contracts.

Using Kucherov's $4.7M as a cut-off, NHL Forwards who played 40+ Games were divided into 3 Groups. Cap Hit less than $2M, Cap hit from $2M to $4.7M ("middle class"), and Cap Hits higher than $4.7M.

Only 23% of Forwards who played 40+ Games had a Cap Hit between $2M and $4.7M. Those Forwards averaged 14 Goals & 33 Points. Players with a Cap Hit less than $2M averaged 12 Goals & 27 Points.  There was very little additional production in Forwards who were paid $2M to $4.7M compared to the less expensive Forwards under $2M. 

Will this lead to an even greater disparity where teams pay their top players big amounts, and everyone else is close to the minimum?