Conflicting reports from two good sources on salary cap for next year

With the NHL suspending play on March 12^th and no definitive date for a possible return of this season, much speculation has taken place on next year’s salary cap. Before the shutdown, it was rumoured to cap could go up to as much as $85 million from the current $81.5 million, which would mean a lot to teams with restricted and unrestricted free agents to sign over the offseason. Now comes word that players have been told the cap will remain flat for 2020-21.

“Players were told on a recent call, the salary cap will stay flat at $81.5 million for next season,” said Fox Sports Midwest reporter Andy Strickland in a Twitter post.

That would be bad news for many teams but there is conflicting information. TSN Insider Pierre Lebrun retweeted Strickland’s statement and called it inaccurate.

“NHLPA spokesman says that’s not accurate,” said Lebrun. “That no decision has been made yet on next year’s cap. My own take: as I wrote a few weeks ago, freezing the cap a few years at the current number or close to it is possible, yes. But not decided yet.”

While it appears no official decision has been made, it’s hard to imagine the cap going up as the league is losing tens of millions of dollars with the shutdown. Unless it can recoup some of that lost revenue during the summer months, even staying flat might be a stretch. As with whether the season might return in some form for 2019-20, we’ll just have to wait and see.