League informs teams of rising salary cap, provides projections of how much the cap could rise over the next 3 seasons
Since the 2019-2020 Season, the NHL salary cap has risen only $1M, creating challenges for many teams looking to keep their roster competitive. There have been teams have had to walk away from free agents, play hard-ball with young RFA's and trade away good players for pennies on the dollar. However, those problems could go away sooner than expected.
Per a report from Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, the NHL has given teams guidance on the salary cap going forward with projected figures for the next three years. The projected cap for 2023-2024 is $83.5M, so just a marginal increase. However, it appears as though the cap could rise by as much as $4.5M in 2024-25 to $87.5-$88M and could end up around $92M for the 2025-2026 season.
These are projections, and these figures have not been confirmed, but should these be the actual cap numbers, that would be great news for a lot of teams who have found themselves getting quite creative to stay under the cap. A higher cap would give teams more flexibility to round out their roster and have more depth. It could also allow teams to pursue free agents and trade targets that they otherwise may not have been able to afford.
For the Leafs, this could be especially important, as the Matthews and Nylander contracts are both set to expire in July of 2024 and, should the Buds wish to retain the services of both forwards, they will need to give them both a substantial raise on their current salaries. An increased salary cap would give them additional room to fit them under the cap for the 2024-205 season, and if the cap goes to $92M as is currently projected, they will have flexibility going forward.
