NHL teams will be able to spend a lot more money on salaries next season after the league and the NHL Players’ Association announced Friday that they’ve reached an agreement to give more salary cap predictability for at least the next three seasons — through 2027-28.
The agreement sets the annual increases to the upper limit, subject to the Collective Bargaining Agreement being in effect beyond the 2025-26 season, at $7.5 million in 2025-26, $8.5 million in 2026-27 and $9.5 million in 2027-28.
The league and the PA also announced team payroll ranges for the next three seasons. The upper limit in 2025-26 will be $95.5 million, a 7.5 percent jump from $88 million this season, and the lower limit will be $70.6 million. For 2026-27, the upper limit will be $104 million and the lower limit $76.9 million, and in 2027-28, the upper limit will be $113.5 million and the lower limit $83.9 million.
The big jump in cap space is excellent news teams that are already pushing the cap for next season – for example, the New York Rangers already have $73,242,857 committed to 12 players for next season, according to Puckpedia. That includes $11.5 million to goaltender Igor Shesterkin in the first of the eight-year, $92 million contract he signed earlier this season – and a big jump from his $5,666,667 cap hit for 2024-25.
It’s also good news for the players, especially the top names who can become free agents on July 1. One of those players, forward Mikko Rantanen, was traded to the Carolina Hurricanes by the Colorado Avalanche on Jan. 24; he’s sure to want more than $10 million per season in a new deal, and this agreement makes him more likely to get it.
But the biggest winner might be Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner, who already makes $10.903 million as he prepares for his first trip to unrestricted free agent. Marner, who turns 28 on May 5, is on pace for his first 100-point season and is sure to get a huge contract.
This season’s salary cap is up $4.5 million from $83.5 million in 2023-24. The salary cap for the 2022-23 season was $82.5 million, marking the first time the cap increased in three years due to the pandemic — it remained at $81.5 million from 2019-20 through 2021-22.
The league and the union also said the projected payroll ranges for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons will be subject to potential minor adjustments — up or down.
“Both clubs and players have sought a certain level of predictability with respect to payroll ranges from year to year and over time for advance planning capabilities,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. “In reviewing our numbers with the Players’ Association as part of our collective bargaining, we finally felt like we were in a position to give them that.
“It’s not ‘absolute certainty,’ but maybe it’s the next best thing.”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman had said in December that the salary cap for next season was projected to be $92.4 million, a $4 million jump from this season. But Bettman, speaking at the Board of Governors meeting in Florida, said then that there was a potential of the cap going even higher pending a possible negotiation between the NHL and NHLPA.
NHL, players union set salary-cap ranges through 2027-28
The NHL and the PA said Friday they still plan to meet to discuss other elements of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that might need modification and/or improvement beyond the 2025-26.
Bettman said in December he hopes to have a new collective bargaining agreement finalized this year, potentially before the Stanley Cup Final begins in June. The current agreement expires after the 2025-26 season.
“I don’t want to prognosticate on collective bargaining,” he said. “We have a very open, constructive relationship with the Players’ Association right now. … So we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves and prognosticate as to what’s going to happen, although we hope to do this as quickly and as seamlessly as possible.”
The news of the cap adjustments comes less than two weeks before the start of the 4 Nations Face-Off, a best-on-best international tournament that involves NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. NHL players will also return to the Winter Olympics next February at the 2026 Milano Cortina Games.