The 2024-25 NHL season is nearing its business end. With just four teams left in the fray to win the Stanley Cup title, the other teams have already started looking ahead. Take the example of the Penguins, who, led by Sidney Crosby, have already begun training for the next season. Additionally, the general managers have gone back to the drawing board to strategize the signings for the upcoming season. However, they are set to face a difficult time due to two major factors.
Over the next three years, the NHL salary cap is set to increase significantly, from $88 million to $113.5 million. Specifically speaking, for the 2025-26 season, the teams can spend $95.5 million with a floor of $70.6 million. As a result, the GMs will get much-needed flexibility to spend big on the players that they need. On the other hand, stars like Brad Marchand and Connor McDavid are also set to enter free agency soon. While the former will be a free agent after this season, McDavid has a year left on his contract. Thus, with the salary cap on the rise, the GMs will face an if-and-but situation of whether they should spend big this summer or wait for the class of 2026.
Meanwhile, Marchand and McDavid aren’t the only big names to enter free agency soon. Even Mitch Marner may have played his last game for the Maple Leafs and is set to become a free agent in the coming weeks. On the other hand, the likes of Kirill Kaprizov and Jack Eichel, along with McDavid, will become free agents in 2026. This leaves the GMs in a catch-22 situation, and it would become difficult to decide if they should spend big in the upcoming window or wait for the next year.
as you wrote, the reality is that most of the bigger names for ’26 will extend and won’t get to market… the other layer to your original question, should teams wait a year to spend, waiting not exactly an option for some of the GMs facing pressure to act now.
— Pierre LeBrun (@PierreVLeBrun) May 22, 2025
However, teams like the Penguins and Bruins, who had a dismal 2024-25 season, would want to act fast and make big moves this summer in order to begin their new season on the right note and give their fans something to cheer about. The onus lies on the teams’ GMs to decide what’s best for their teams.
Meanwhile, the NHL has announced a record increase in the salary cap for the upcoming season. Speaking about it, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman explained why the cap is getting higher and higher.
NHL Commissioner’s big boost for the teams
With each passing season, the NHL has grown in stature and popularity. As a result, the revenues have gone up season after season, making it a hugely successful league in the United States and other parts of the world. Thus, Bettman announced the biggest year-to-year increase in the salary cap for the upcoming season since its inception in 2005.
During an interview, he said, “The cap under the current guidelines in the Collective Bargaining Agreement would go up 5 percent. As we look at revenues, we’re going to have discussions with the Players’ Association about escrow levels and whether or not the cap can or should be tweaked a little more on an ongoing basis, but that’s something that we have to really work out with the Players’ Association, and we’re having those discussions.”
Eventually, the NHL decided to revise the cap to $95.5 million for the 2025-26 season. This would ensure more spending power for the GMs, and they would be able to attract the players that they desire to have on their team. All in all, the NHL braces for some interesting times ahead for the players and the teams.
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