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.
