NHL/NHLPA release cap estimates for next three seasons and it’s a boatload of cash!

This upcoming summer will be busy especially with a number of the league’s top players are going to be looking for big paydays as free agents. On Friday, things got more serious when the NHL and the NHL’s Players Association released new information on how much teams are going to be able to spend.

According to Elliotte Friedman, these are the salary cap estimates for next three seasons:

2025-26: $95.5M
2026-27: $104 M
2027-28: $113.5M

This season’s salary cap is $88 million. This is a significant raise for next season, and let’s not even begint to talk about the next two campaigns.

Wow.

As for the current CBA, it expires in September 2026, but NHL commissioner Gary Bettman recently said the hope is to have the new agreement finalized sometime in 2025, potentially before the Stanley Cup Final.

It's a great time to be hitting free agency. I feel a spending frenzy coming in the summer!

Statement from deputy commissioner Bill Daly: 

"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. 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.''