A payroll of $113.5 million in two years, according to league assessments

It is known that the salary cap (currently estimated at $88 million) is going to rise significantly in the coming years. After COVID-19 slowed down the momentum of many clubs, it’s going to be intense in the future.

But to what extent?

According to estimates from the NHL and the Players Association, we should expect the salary cap to rise to $95.5 million in 2025-2026. That’s an increase of $7.5 million, after all.

But that’s not all.

Elliotte Friedman also reported that in 2026-2027, it should be $104 million, which is $16 million more than at present. And in 2027-2028, it would be $113.5 million, or $25.5 million more than today.

New:

NHL/NHLPA have released cap estimates for next three seasons:
2025-26: $95.5M
2026-27: $104 M
2027-28: $113.5M
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) January 31, 2025

Obviously, these are estimates: nothing is set in stone.

But it shows that the league is in good health. Otherwise, the projections wouldn’t be as… positive as they are right now. After all, such an increase is significant.

To put it into perspective: $25.5 million spread over a roster of 23 players is like each guy could be in line for a million-dollar raise.

And there would still be some leftover.

Clearly, it is the good players who will benefit the most. Connor McDavid should earn a crazy salary, and good players across the league will benefit as well.

Kent Hughes won’t be able to maintain his “salary structure” for too long, as Ivan Demidov and Lane Hutson will see the cap rise quickly. And they will want their share of the pie.

In 3 years, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky (the first line of the #GoHabsGo) will each take up less than 7% of the CH’s salary cap.

It might be a different story for Lane Hutson and Ivan Demidov, but the first three will quickly be great bargains. https://t.co/T07NZGa6iI
— Félix Forget (@FForget_LTM) January 31, 2025

But beyond the players already in place (by the way, Jake Evans should also be happy to see this), this will give Kent Hughes some leeway to acquire top players to improve the team in the coming years.

It will be interesting to follow. After all, some teams might not want to spend that much… but in my opinion, Geoff Molson will use all the resources he has on hand to win.

In Brief
– To be continued.

.@MaximeTruman is on site for the training of the #CFMTL.

We are expecting an intra-team match at the Marie-Victorin Complex. https://t.co/N67muSuSAH
— DansLesCoulisses (@DLCoulisses) January 31, 2025

– Oh really?

With the whole world coming to Los Angeles, there was no more room for him. https://t.co/ovF0koezMj

— Passion MLB (@passion_mlb) January 31, 2025

– The team is doing better.

What a turnaround! https://t.co/4eAHvwLrzV

— TVA Sports (@TVASports) January 31, 2025