With NHL free agency set to kick off on Saturday July 1st, teams will look to begin reshaping their rosters ahead of the 2023-24 season.

   While teams aren’t supposed to be permitted to speak to players currently under contracts with other organizations until 12pm ET, hockey fans are acutely aware that there’s a glut of deals already verbally agreed to, which won’t be formally announced until after free agency officially opens.

   With millions of dollars worth of contracts ready to be doled out in short order, the Salary Cap outlook for franchises could look drastically different 24 hours from now. Which is why although the NHL Entry Draft stole the show in Nashville this week, another announcement which largely flew under the radar could have a massive effect on this free agency period.

   The NHL announced on Wednesday that the 2023-24 Salary cap will increase to $83.5M next season. A proclamation that also means that the salary cap floor will be raised to $61.7M as well.

   This $1M increase may not seem like much at first glance, however it represents the second consecutive season that the cap has gone up after a 3 year freeze (due in large part to the pandemic).

   The cap has essentially been considered “flat” since the 2020-21 season as players have been paying off the nearly $1.5B worth of escrow debt they incurred due to the pause to the league caused by the coronavirus.

   Without getting too far into the weeds regarding collective bargaining agreements, essentially league revenue fell off a cliff, but players continued to be paid their normal salaries during lockdowns. As a result, the NHLPA and its players were receiving more than the 50% share of hockey related revenue which was agreed upon in the previous CBA.

   In short, the owners could have collected their debt all at once after the league resumed unrestricted play. Instead, they opted to spread it out over a period of several years. With that debt expected to be paid off sometime in the near future, experts are now predicting to see a spike of $4-5M in the 2024-25 salary cap.

   This is good news for players as when the cap goes up, so too do their salaries. NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman pointed to strong attendance and TV revenues across the league as the reason why the debt was able to be repaid so quickly.

   Under the 2023-24 salary cap, the maximum salary a player could earn is $16.7M. Though no player does. The highest earning player currently on an AAV basis is Nathan MacKinnon of the Colorado Avalanche who is currently taking home $12.6M annually. $100K more than runner up Connor McDavid.

   This potential spike in the salary cap is especially good news for soon to be pending UFA Auston Matthews, whose 5yr/$58M deal is set to expire after the upcoming season. 

   Matthews recently mentioned that he doesn’t “need” to hit any particular figure on his next deal, and wants to leave room for his team to surround him with talent. But if an additional $4-5M becomes available, and the cap ceiling continues to trend higher year over year, you can bet that his agent will be ensuring that a record setting deal is in the not so distant future for his client.

-Kyle Skinner

Twitter: @JKyleSkinner

Photo: Brandon Zeman. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.

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