Breaking: NHL salary cap announcement is bad news for cap teams.

Bad news for cap teams.

HockeyFeed
HockeyFeed
Published 4 years ago
Breaking: NHL salary cap announcement is bad news for cap teams.

If you're a fan of one of the National Hockey League's cap strapped teams this is going to come as very bad news for you. 

The salary cap projections had the National Hockey League's maximum allowable cap expenditure going up to as high as $83 million for the 2019 - 2020 NHL regular season but it seems that one of the reasons it took so long for the official number to be announced was because that number was never truly a realistic one. The National Hockey League Player's Association has been discussing this issue for several days now and after a lengthy deliberation process we now have an official announcement.

According to an announcement from TSN National Hockey League insider Bob McKenzie the salary cap has not officially been set and it is a full $1.5 million less than many had projected. McKenzie reports that the cap for next season has been set at $81.5 million, which represents a very stagnant growth of just 0.5% from the previous season. The National Hockey League's Player's Association is no doubt preparing itself for a big battle over escrow in the next collective bargaining agreement between the union and the league, and this may be one of the early signs that the players intend to fight the NHL tooth and nail on this issue until they come to a workable solution.

That means that teams like the Las Vegas Golden Knights, who are currently over the NHL's salary cap at $83 million, as well as teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins, Toronto Maple Leafs, Tampa Bay Lightning, Edmonton Oilers and others,  that are right up against it, will now have to adjust their offseason plans accordingly. Especially for a team like the Maple Leafs who have a huge unrestricted free agent signing to get done this summer you have to imagine that getting $1.5 million less in cap space is a huge deal.

Of course we won't know how this impact teams until they get the chance to adjust, but I expect plenty more activity in the coming weeks as a direct result of today's news. The salary cap floor will be just over $60 million this season, although I do not expect that will have much of an impact if it has one at all.


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