Just hours before the first pick was revealed at the 2014 NHL Entry Draft, the league had an announcement of its own -- the salary cap for 2014-15 will rise to $69 million.
From the NHL:
The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association today announced that the Team Payroll Range established for the 2014-15 League Year, pursuant to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, provides for a Lower Limit of $51 million, an Adjusted Midpoint of $60 million and an Upper Limit of $69 million.
This is a bump from the $64.3 million teams worked under last season, but lower than some expected -- several pundits thought the figure would be at least $70M. Because of that, we could see less fluidity in the trade and free agent markets than expected, which would be a shame as both have been filled with rumors and speculation leading up to the draft.
To get a sense of what the $69M figure does to the NHL’s 10 highest payrolls, check out this (courtesy CapGeek):