As covered by The Canuck Way back in November, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman claimed the NHL salary cap was going to jump up to between $95-$97 million for next season, on the proviso that the Collective Bargaining Agreement gets done. This was of course intriguing and potentially exciting news for the Edmonton Oilers and the rest of the league, given that the current salary cap projection for the 2025-26 campaign is $92.5 million.
However, it didn't take long for NHL commissioner Gary Bettman to come out and dispute this speculation in his usual cutting style. As per Sportsnet, Bettman said:
"I don't know where that came from. The numbers that were being thrown around were not accurate, and any change would require an agreement between (the league) and the players' association in terms of how it's computed, and we haven't had those discussions. So somebody, I think, floated something on a slow news day."
The thing is though, that Friedman is one of the most highly-respected and well-connected hockey media people out there, with him not renowned for sharing wild and unsubstantiated speculation. In addition, as much as Bettman did try to deny the claim, if you read between the lines, we would focus on his comments that any change would have to be agreed between the league and the players' association.
About that denial of a bigger increase for next season ...
In any event, more information has now emerged, which essentially supports what Friedman said. It comes via NHL player agent Allan Walsh, during Friday's episode of the Agent Provocateur podcast with co-host Adam Wylde.
Giving due credit to Jacob Billington of The Hockey Writers, Walsh was adament about how much the salary cap will increase for the 2025-26 NHL campaign. He said:
"You heard it from me. I am telling you right now, you can write it down. I am not divulging any confidences here, I am not divulging any inside information per say, I am telling you right now the upper limit of the salary cap next year will be $97 million."
As with Friedman, you have to imagine Walsh is also well-connected, which is kind of quite important when you're an agent representing NHL players! It also makes sense that the salary cap could be expected to jump higher that previously projected given, as we wrote earlier this month, total attendance for the 2023-24 season was the highest ever at nearly 22.9 million, while revenues for 2024-25 are projected to surpass $6.6 billion USD.
With the salary cap for this season at $88 million, an increase to $97 million would be massive for the NHL. More specifically, this would mean an extra $9 million for all 32 teams to use, double the amount with the currently projected $92.5 million.
Would be a big boost for the Oilers' upcoming negotiations
For the Oilers in particular, this would be extremely helpful, with next season seen the first year of Leon Draisaitl's new deal, which jumps from an Average Annual Value of $8.5 million all the way up to $14 million per campaign. It would also be a bonus for negotiations with pending restricted free agent Evan Bouchard, with him anticipated to receive a big boost from his current cap hit for this season of $3.9 million.
Even more importantly, this apparent extra increase bodes well for negotiations with Connor McDavid, which can begin this coming summer - 12 months before he is in line to become an unrestricted free agent. It's long been assumed he will become the highest-paid player in NHL history -- taking over the mantle currently held by Draisaitl -- with the Oilers also being able to offer an eighth year, unlike any other team interested in his services.
So in respect of boding well, and specifically considering that any new deal for McDavid would not start until the 2026-27 NHL season, it seems reasonable to expect a salary cap increase to at least $100 million at that time. Of course this is pending reports of the increase to $97 million for next season being confirmed, but the future sure looks bright for NHL teams, particularly the one based in Edmonton.