I don't think that's true at all. I'll wait for someone to show the stats of this.
There are only 17 NHLers with 40 or more goals last year. Only four of those players get paid 8mil or less this year. Stamkos who is getting paid 8Mil this year was getting 8.5 last season.
Hyman, Marchessaultt, and Boeser are the other three and outside of last year none of them have ever hit 40 before.
Forsberg, Crosby, Reinhart, and Drai are the only four others who get paid less than 9Mil. Drai starts making 14Mil starting next season. And Crosby is very superstitious about the number 87.
That leaves nine other players who get paid between 9-13.25mil in the league who scored 40+ goals last year.
The average cap hit for a 40+ goal scorer last year was 9.26. If you only average out the players who score 40-44 it's 8.5.