March 29: Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic confirms that at the general manager meetings in Florida, the league has officially announced that the 2022-23 salary cap will be set at $82.5MM.
March 26: The end of the flat cap era could be in sight. After three seasons at a salary cap upper limit of $81.5 due to the Coronavirus pandemic, a long-awaited increase could be coming – and just in time for a number of teams. TSN’s Chris Johnston reports that the NHL is continuing to project a $1MM bump to the current ceiling and that teams will be informed of the expected $82.5MM mark for the 2022-23 season at the upcoming GM Meetings.
The 2021-22 season has not been without its hiccups, specifically a large number of games postponed due to COVID in December in January. However, with the NHL also opting out of the 2022 Winter Olympics, the league was able to reschedule many of those missed games during the planned Olympic break in February, with other dates being added and swapped throughout the rest of the season. Johnston reports that these changes did not impact the league’s revenue stream in a meaningful way. While attendance limits in Canada have cost overall revenue, it has not been enough to dislodge the league’s planned cap increase. In fact, Johnston says that 2021-22 returns thus far appear “strong”.
This will be welcome relief for a number of teams. Although the cap has been stagnant for several years, it has not necessarily deflated player salaries which has put a number of teams in difficult spots this year and as they plan ahead for 2022-23 and beyond. This is especially true for long-term contracts for defensemen, many of which kick in next season. Though $1MM may not seem like a significant increase, more than half the league is currently using Long-Term Injured Reserve or is less than $1MM under the cap ceiling and this has been true for most of the season. Many of these same teams also have an uncomfortable amount of salary expenses already committed for the 2022-23 season and will greatly appreciate some added flexibility.
With business running smoothly and the upper limit trending up, there could be a shift in the NHL’s salary cap floor as well. The league boasts impressive competitive balance and much of that comes from a hard salary floor in addition to the ceiling, and a narrow margin at that. Johnston does not make note of any imminent announcements on the cap floor just yet, but if the NHL believes that revenue is healthy enough to increase the cap, they will likely do the same with the floor.
Just an increase of 1m???
That’s absolutely laughable.
As expected from the Commish…BIG…FAT…HAIRY…DEAL. Don’t spend it all in one place.
Yeah, but they got that big TV deal with ESPN and TNT, and occassionally, in between basketball games, they squeeze in a hockey game!
But the coverage is hip and cool, so all those non hockey people will really dig that. :D
@Gbear – Do you get the feeling that Bettman & Co. pulled the old “One for us, one for you, two for us, one for you…” BS with the PA? He’s talking out of both sides of his mouth and hyping up all of these over packed barns, but he forgot to tell the people who are documenting attendance to fix-job the numbers. And, the PxP and color guys are also disclosing half-empty arenas, too. I’d love to see him pull the tough-guy act on somebody like Sergio, Corey, or Heddy and try to demand that from them. He could be the first to get three black eyes! His fallback will be “It’s going to take time”, all the while refusing to reign in Campbell & the Peterborough mafia for the officiating mess.
The fact that the cap is going up by so little does seem to undermine Gary’s “full barns” pronouncments, doesn’t it?
I look forward to playoff games being put on tape delay due to Div. III pickleball games going into double OT! But if the advertisers are happy, than darn it, so am I!
@Gbear – You’d better start un-happy-ing right now, or we’ll disinherit you from this here forum! And, wash the dog while you’re at it! Now you know why The Creator invented interweb radio. “Pre-empted game, my ass!” :)
Good thing Arizona didn’t already move to their new 5000 seat arena or that rise in the cap would even be smaller.
@Gbear – There have been rumblings that the Ky-Yoots will try to greed-gouge the soon-to-be-ex patrons for everything under the sun. That’ll blow up in their faces like a crate of bad Chinese fireworks! ;)
@Mac – What better way to grow the game in the desert than to reserve tickets for the richest 5000 people around the Phoenix region! :D
@Gbear – They may be rich, but I can’t believe they’re that stupid! Maybe they’ll treat it as a huge rave party! (Exclusivity)
:)
You know I’m loading up at CiCi’s at 5pm,taking an Uber to the college rink,and smuggling in WHATABURGER or Jersey Mike’s in my shorts. “That guy is really happy to be here.”
Not quite enough of an increase for Vegas to escape cap hell next year.