Projections: The salary cap will be excessive in two years

Charles-Alexis Brisebois
Projections: The salary cap will be excessive in two years
Credit: Capture d'écran/YouTube

Currently, the salary cap is $104 million. It is expected to rise to $113.5 million next year.

And with the NHL becoming increasingly healthy, we can expect to see a salary cap in 2028–2029 that will be significantly higher—much to the delight of the players.

Elliotte Friedman (Sportsnet) reports that current projections for 2028–2029 are $127.5 million.

If we compare that figure to the one for 2027–2028, we're looking at a difference of $14 million. That would obviously be a record for the difference between two seasons.

Yes, the NHL is in good shape.

Obviously, given the Canadiens' current salary structure, seeing such a high cap could allow Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton to make major additions.

Everyone across the NHL would have more wiggle room, which would complicate things… but the Habs would have an advantage thanks to their salary cap space.

And that's not even counting the fact that Geoff Molson will be among the owners who will undoubtedly want to spend right up to the cap, if necessary. Not all teams will be able to do that.

Right now, the Canadiens have seven forwards (Ivan Demidov, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Alex Newhook, Zachary Bolduc, and Jake Evans) under contract for 2028–2029 at just over $45 million.

Noah Dobson, Lane Hutson, Mike Matheson, Kaiden Guhle, and Jakub Dobes are collectively at just over $35 million.

So if the Habs want to make some moves, let's just say they'll have the means to do so in the future. And they'll have no choice if they want to become a long-term NHL powerhouse.


In a nutshell

– Good news.

– Oh.

– Must-read.

– The season is coming to an end.

– Interesting.

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