The Importance Of October 6th On The NHL Calendar

Generally speaking, October 6th is not a particularly important day in the NHL.  It’s either a day late in the preseason or early in the regular season, depending on when the campaign gets underway.

However, that’s not the case this year.  First, that is the day that season-opening cap-compliant rosters need to be submitted to the NHL as it’s the day before the regular season starts.  Accordingly, any players who have to clear waivers and be sent down before those rosters are due will have to be on waivers no later than Sunday, allowing for them to clear (or be claimed elsewhere) at 1 PM CT on Monday.  Accordingly, expect the waiver wire to be even busier than it has been in recent weeks in advance of a busy Monday afternoon for teams to get their opening rosters submitted.

Meanwhile, there is a second deadline on October 6th this season.  It also represents the deadline for players to sign contracts that contain salary deferrals.  A practice used a little more frequently in recent years (Toronto and Carolina have more than one player with this) in order to lower the cap charge, it was removed in the CBA extension that comes into effect next September.  However, parts of the new Memorandum of Understanding will be in play earlier, including this one.  With October 7th being the start of the regular season schedule, any deals with deferred salary have to be registered with the league no later than Monday.

With a few contracts of significance signed around the NHL in recent days (Kirill Kaprizov, Luke Hughes, and Jackson LaCombe, in particular), some fresh comparables have come in for teams and agents to work with.  That could push a few more deals across the finish line in the coming days with some players preferring not to have discussions extend into the regular season.

But if an agreement can’t still be reached, salary deferral is a mechanism that could allow the player to get a certain amount of total money in a contract while allowing the team to keep the cap charge at a particular number, allowing both sides to get what they want.  That is, assuming that the player is willing to wait until after the expiration of the contract to receive some of the money, something that isn’t overly popular.  But with the deadline to utilize this particular mechanism now just a few days away from being outlawed, it wouldn’t be surprising to see upcoming contract talks revisit this option to try to get a deal across the finish line.  If some prominent pending free agents are amenable, there could be an uptick in activity on the extension front by October 6th.