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Report: Salary cap likely to remain flat for 2017-18

Gary Bettman, Donald Fehr

Gary Bettman, Donald Fehr

AP

A couple of weeks ago, we wrote about the possibility of the NHL’s salary cap remaining flat for 2017-18.

Today, the New York Post is reporting that that possibility is getting pretty close to reality.

The expectation, affirmed in conversations within the past three days by essentially everyone on the NHL players’ side of the aisle, is that the union will decline to trigger the escalator for next season, thus creating a flat salary cap right around the current $73 million for 2017-18. ... We are told by individuals who traditionally have advocated pumping the maximum amount of dollars into the system that the infusion of dollars generated by the addition of the expansion Vegas Golden Knights has altered the equation for at least this time around.

Obviously, a new team can sign players and take on contracts, lessening the effects of a flat salary cap for free agents and cap-strapped clubs.

Typically, the salary cap is set in late June, so we should know shortly what the number will be.

Related: Trade rumblings getting loud in Chicago