NHL stars set to cash in during free agency thanks to cap space bonanza

Yes, we have confirmed previous reports that negotiations between the league and the NHLPA will all but certainly yield a $97 million salary cap for next season, which would represent a $9 million — 10.23 percent — increase from this year’s $88M. 

Slap Shots has also learned that using the “two-year lag” formula outlined under the governing MOU adopted during the teeth of COVID in July 2020, there is an expectation that players would ultimately be returned all 2025-26 escrow deductions that are capped at 6 percent. 

Indeed, we are told by a higher authority that the players should recover not only all of their full 6 percent deductions from last season but are likely to receive an additional 1 or 2 percent once the NHLPA’s annual auditing process is complete. 

This means that the 2023-24 cap was so unnaturally depressed coming out of the 2019-20 and 2020-21 COVID-impacted seasons, that players actually received between just 42-44 percent of hockey-related revenue last season.