NHL reveals official projected salary cap for next season, but it may still increase even more

5 years ago, no one could have predicted an almost flat salary cap. Then, COVID-19 hit, the world stopped and the salary cap stood still with it. Unfortunately, it forced many teams to trade away impact players for almost nothing to remain cap-compliant. It has also forced a lot of career third and fourth line players to take league minimum, 1-year deals and even PTO's in order to find work and stay in the league.

At the beginning of this season, many predicted there would be a substantial increase in the salary cap for next season, with some estimating that the cap could rise to nearly $88M. While that rise in salary cap will help teams next season, it will also help players recoup some of the money they have lost the last few years on new deals. Today at the Board of Governors meetings in Seattle, the NHL announced that next season's salary cap would be $87.675M, an increase of $4.125M.

According to PuckPedia, this increase of 5% is the maximum allowable cap increase unless there is an agreement between the NHL and NHLPA for a further increase as per the CBA. For those unaware, the reason that the cap has remained relatively flat the last few years is due to the players having to pay the owners back their share of hockey related revenue (HRR) and with that scheduled to be paid off this season, there is now a path forward to a higher salary cap.

Next season will mark the first of what many insiders believe will be subsequent multi-million dollar increases to the salary cap over the next few years. These increases will be a welcome sight to players, teams and fans. It should allow players to have more options in free agency, will allow teams to retain more players and will allow fans the opportunity to see their favourite teams remain competitive without having to sacrifice a key player due to cap restrictions.