The NHL is about to get a whole lot more fun.
Rises to the NHL’s salary cap are coming forth in the following years, with the NHL and its Players Association releasing a memo to teams Friday detailing mammoth increases that haven’t been seen since the first three years of the hard cap coming out of the 2005-06 lockout.
The striking rises are estimated to come over the next three years, climbing a staggering $25.5 million, or 29 percent, Daily Faceoff’s Frank Seravalli reported Friday.
The increases would be gradual, with next year’s salary cap estimated to sit at $ 95.5 million, a $7.5 million rise from this year. It would then rise another $8.5-million in 2026-27 to $104-million, and climb another $9.5-million in 2027-28 to a staggering $113.5-million.
In a statement to The Athletic’s Pierre LeBrun, the NHL’s Deputy Commissioner said parties around the league were asking for some form of predictability around the future of the league’s cap.
“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,” Daly told 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.”
The projections have the salary cap increasing 29 percent over the next three years, showing growth that hasn’t been seen since the early days of the cap. Coming out of the 2005-06 lockout, a hard salary cap of $ 39 million was implemented, but over the next three years, it quickly grew 45.4 percent to $ 56.7 million. But between then and now, the growth of the cap has been nothing short of a slow trickle, increasing on average just 2.8 percent per year.
The COVID-19 pandemic put a halt on the cap, freezing it at $ 81.5 million between 2020-21 and 2021-22 before there were incremental $1 million climbs in each of the previous two years.
News of these increases is significant for the league and its clubs, opening up the ability to do business at nearly never before seen levels.
According to PuckPedia, 12 NHL teams are operating over the salary cap utilizing the Long-Term Injured Reserve, while another six clubs are within $900,000 of the cap. The remaining 14 teams have between $1.24 million and $18.75 million in cap space to work with, averaging out to $6.5 million.
For teams like the Edmonton Oilers, who are in line to give significant raises in the following years to players like Connor McDavid, Evan Bouchard, and Stuart Skinner in the following years, knowing what the salary cap will look like is imperative. Now, teams, players, agents and all other parties involved will have a clearer outlook as to what the following years will look like.
That means entering the 2025-26 offseason, the team will have $19.11 million in cap space, climbing to $66.08 million in 2026-27 and $78.13 million in 2027-28, according to PuckPedia.
Zach Laing is Oilersnation’s associate editor, senior columnist, and The Nation Network’s news director. He also makes up one-half of the DFO DFS Report. He can be followed on Twitter, currently known as X, at @zjlaing, or reached by email at zach@thenationnetwork.com.

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