LATEST | Bettman could consider a major cap increase, but something much bigger could be at play in these negotiations

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Felip Gosselin
March 15, 2023 (6:45 PM)

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The General Managers held their annual meeting with the NHL and Gary Bettman dropped a major point in their discussions and it could be huge for the Canucks.

It's been announced that at this point the expectations are that the cap will only increase by 1 million. Before the meeting's end, Bettman openly stated that he'd willing to negotiate with his NHLPA's counterpart, Marty Walsh, on this particular issue. Per the latest NHL-NHLPA Collective Bargaining Agreement extension dealt with in 2020, Bettman isn't obligated to do anything in that regard. Now the real question behind it is: what does the NHL want in return?

Frank Seravalli gave us a hint of what Bettman had in mind and it'll surely be a big one to give up for the NHL:

''The belief is Bettman has his eye on something in particular. League sources say Bettman would consider raising the salary cap beyond the $1 million mandated by the CBA if there is also a resolution to existing and unresolved Hockey Related Revenue claims by the NHLPA that remain open from the last several seasons. Claims are relatively common in the auditing process to ensure an exact 50-50 split is divided as the CBA calls for it to be; league sources were unclear on exactly how much is in the dispute or the validity of the claims.''

Per the article, if the claims were removed, Bettman would be open to talking about a serious cap increase. It was indicated that the cap could be going up to 3 to $3.5M as soon as next season. The players may be reticent since they're still due a large sum in escrow and nobody wants an increase on those, but even the owners are trending in the direction where they want the cap to go in an upward direction.