Salary cap in the playoffs: The Canadiens are expected to have the lowest payroll among the 16 teams

Mathis Therrien
Salary cap in the playoffs: The Canadiens are expected to have the lowest payroll among the 16 teams
Credit: YouTube

The Montreal Canadiens kick off their 2026 playoff campaign this afternoon at 5:45 p.m. against the Lightning in Tampa Bay.

We're likely in for an exciting Game 1 between two teams that hate each other but also know how to play hockey.

This will be the first playoff matchup between the two teams since the 2021 Stanley Cup Final, when the Lightning faced heavy criticism for their abuse of the salary cap.

Well, this year, that kind of abuse is no longer possible, as the NHL has implemented a playoff salary cap for the first time in its history.

Teams must adhere to the same cap as during the regular season, but only for the salaries of players in the game-day roster.

And when you break down each team, you realize that the Habs have the lowest payroll of all 16 teams.

In fact, the Canadiens are expected to be approximately $27 million under the $95.5 million salary cap with their projected lineup for today's Game #1.

If Martin St-Louis makes no changes from yesterday morning's practice, the Habs will have a payroll of $68,645,000.

This includes the salaries of the 20 players who will be dressed for Game 1, as well as the 2024-2025 performance bonuses that were deferred to this year.

Patrik Laine ($8.7M), Brendan Gallagher ($6.5M), Samuel Montembeault ($3.15M), Joe Veleno ($900,000), Adam Engstrom ($896,667), and David Reinbacher ($886,666) are therefore not expected to count against the Habs' playoff payroll, barring a last-minute lineup change.

Noah Dobson ($9.5 million) will also be out due to injury.

So I don't see the Habs changing anything, or surprising the Lightning by putting Patrik Laine in the lineup, even though it's his 28th birthday today.

In short, the Habs will start the playoffs with the lowest payroll of the 16 playoff teams, and that won't change unless Martin St-Louis changes his lineup.

As for the Tampa Bay Lightning, their playoff payroll stands at $84.22 million, which is the 7th highest among playoff teams.

The Canadiens will therefore face a Lightning team that is staying within the salary cap this time around, compared to the 2021 final, where Tampa Bay took advantage of the fact that the cap no longer applied during the playoffs.

For the complete list of the Habs' salaries and the ranking of the 16 payrolls (the Avalanche sits at the top), I'll refer you here to Nicolas Cloutier's excellent article.


In Brief

– Listen to this.

– The mind-boggling prices of the time.

– Incredible.

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