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NHL Assures Teams of Huge Forthcoming Salary-Cap Leap Amid Revenue Growth
- Anaheim Ducks
- Arizona Coyotes
- Boston Bruins
- Buffalo Sabres
- Calgary Flames
- Carolina Hurricanes
- Chicago Blackhawks
- Colorado Avalanche
- Columbus Blue Jackets
- Dallas Stars
- Detroit Red Wings
- Edmonton Oilers
- Florida Panthers
- Los Angeles Kings
- Minnesota Wild
- Montreal Canadiens
- Nashville Predators
- New Jersey Devils
- New York Islanders
- New York Rangers
- Ottawa Senators
- Philadelphia Flyers
- Pittsburgh Penguins
- San Jose Sharks
- Seattle Kraken
- St. Louis Blues
- Tampa Bay Lightning
- Toronto Maple Leafs
- Vancouver Canucks
- Vegas Golden Knights
- Washington Capitals
- Winnipeg Jets
With revenues trending ever upward in the NHL, the league is reportedly preparing its teams for a major salary-cap increase.
Hockey's salary cap will jump from $88 million to an estimated $95.5 million in 2026, $104 million in 2027, and $113.5 million in 2028, according to a Friday morning report from Elliotte Friedman of SportsNet.
The figures constitute unprecedented post-pandemic increases—as Josh Erickson of ProHockeyRumors wrote Friday, the cap will undergo "around a 9% jump per year on average, up significantly from the roughly 5% jump we’re used to in recent seasons outside of the (pandemic)-related cap freeze."
In fact, the jump from 2025 to 2026 is, per Erickson, the largest year-over-year monetary increase since 2009.
New:
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 31, 2025
NHL/NHLPA have released cap estimates for next three seasons:
2025-26: $95.5M
2026-27: $104 M
2027-28: $113.5M
The NHL's salary cap was introduced in the aftermath of the 2005 lockout, and was just $39 million in the 2006 season.
Since then, the figure has more than doubled even as the league has weathered continued labor issues and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Patrick Andres is a staff writer on the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. He joined SI in December 2022, having worked for The Blade, Athlon Sports, Fear the Sword and Diamond Digest. Andres has covered everything from zero-attendance Big Ten basketball to a seven-overtime college football game. He is a graduate of Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism with a double major in history .