NHL Insider Says Salary Cap For 2025-26 Season May See a Significant Jump, Which is Big for the Canucks

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Cooper Godin
November 17, 2024 (8:30)

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The National Hockey League's salary cap for the 2025-26 season may see a significant rise according to Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman, who shared how much it could increase by on Hockey Night in Canada on Saturday.

We're just over a month into the National Hockey League's 2024-25 campaign, but with CBA talks set to get underway in the new year, there's been some talk regarding next season's salary cap.

Before the season began, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said that the league's early projection for next year's salary cap is $92.5 million USD, a $4.5 million jump from this current campaign. But could it rise more than expected?

Elliotte Friedman says salary cap could jump more than expected

During the Saturday Headlines segment on Hockey Night in Canada, Sportsnet insider Elliotte Friedman gave a bit of an update on the NHL's salary cap situation for the 2025-26 season.

Friedman said that the NHL and NHLPA are set to meet in early 2025 to discuss a new CBA (Collective Bargaining Agreement) and that the topic of the salary cap will be on the agenda. While the current CBA doesn't expire until September 2026, if agreed upon, the salary cap could rise further than the allowable 5%.

If an agreement is reached, the salary cap for next season could be in the range of $95-$97 million USD, a rise of 8-10.2% when compared to 2024-25. On the other hand, if they can't agree, then the salary cap will stay around $92.5 million before a major jump in 2026-27, potentially close to $100 million.

"One of the stories we've been following this week is the salary cap for next year and at this time of year, the Players Association meets with all the players as part of its fall tour and it's taken on added importance because there's going to be CBA negotiations next year." Friedman said.

He added, "One of the things they're talking about is the salary cap - which is supposed to be about $92.5 million for next year. Now when this deal was done, we were in the middle of COVID, we had no idea what the world was going to look like and there were very careful guardrails put in place on the salary cap just in case things didn't recover.

Well fortunately for the NHL, revenues have been strong, they've been very good - they've outpaced the guardrails on that salary cap. So basically we have two paths to follow here. Number one is they keep the cap next year around $92.5 million and then there's a huge jump the year after in 2026-27. Or what the players say they've kind of been told about is the possibility that the cap moves higher next year, probably around the 95-97 area. Now there's no confirmation yet of which one is going to happen, but I'm hearing it's definitely going to be discussed and there is some optimism that they can find a way to do it, but nothing will get done, until it's done. It's definitely out there and the players have definitely been told about the possibility."

A jump of $6.5-$8.5 million on the salary cap would be huge for all 32 teams around the National Hockey League, especially those tight to it currently, including the Vancouver Canucks. Patrik Allvin and the Vancouver Canucks have a big name on their roster that's set to be a free agent on July 1st, that being forward Brock Boeser.

A jump $6.5 to $8.5 million would be massive for Patrik Allvin to work with in trying to re-sign Boeser, rather than having him hit the open market on Canada Day.