Good news for NHL clubs who consistently employ an NHL roster that is close to (sometimes over thanks to LTIR) the NHL salary cap ceiling each season. The NHL is going to up the amount of money teams can spend and per reports, including one by Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman, the cap will go up $1 million next season to a total of $82.5 million.
Related: NHL GMs to Talk Limits On LTIR Playoff Flexibility Moving Forward
The league has been waiting some time for this. With a pandemic and lost games, no fans, and tons of revenue not generated, the league couldn’t continue allowing the cap to increase. It held steady with a salary cap of $81.5 million for the past three seasons when in years past the cap had risen. But, as the NHL starts to rebound, they’re moving closer to the norm and teams are getting some of that lost revenue back in terms of what they can spend on player salaries. This is official, so teams can start planning their offseason expenditures accordingly.
This is good news for the league as it means the initial plans as outlined when agreed upon between the NHL and NHLPA are still in place. The cap is scheduled to go up another $1 million in 2023-24 to $83.5M.
Further to that, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff notes:
The NHL reiterated today that the projection is the $1 billion debt held by the players will be repaid to owners by the end of the 2024-25 season. If that projection holds, 2025-26 is the first season the salary cap could rise significantly.
How much it jumps at that time is unknown, but it certainly will be more than $1 million. As per the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), players and owners split hockey-related revenue 50/50. The salary cap is determined before each offseason based on projections of what the league’s expected revenue is going to be. That is why the announcement has come already for next season.
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