There was good news for NHL general managers on Wednesday. According to Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, the projected salary cap ceiling for next season is between $84 million and $88.2 million.
The current ceiling is $81.5 million.
What’s to be decided is if the NHLPA chooses to use the 5% inflator, which is where the $88.2M figure comes in. The $84 million number is without the inflator.
The final salary cap limits will be finalized in June. The percentage of escrow -- currently 14% -- going forward could play a role in whether the players use the inflator.
Using that potential range for next season, contenders like the Bruins, Avalanche, and the Stars are sitting good.
With reports that the projected Salary Cap for next season could be between $84M and $88M, here's a look at the projected cap hits of all 31 teams in 2020-21 based on current rosters and the players under contract for next season broken down by position.https://t.co/nXfmDT1fO4 pic.twitter.com/s9BK1gI2yy
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) March 4, 2020
As the league and NHLPA continue Collective Bargaining Agreement talks, Daly said the hope is to get the cap information to teams earlier. There are also discussions about trying to come up with a multi-year cap for better planning purposes.
“Typically over the last several years, probably since we initiated the CBA, we haven’t been able to give them a cap number until late June, in and around the time of the draft,” Daly said. “Hopefully at some point in the future we’ll have a mechinism that allows them to have that information sooner.”
————
Sean Leahy is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @Sean_Leahy.