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CBA Notes: Minimum Salary, LTIR, Draftees, Salary Retention, Olympics, Neck Guards

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Earlier today, league Commissioner Gary Bettman announced a Memorandum of Understanding between the NHL and NHLPA for a new agreed-upon Collective Bargaining Agreement beginning in the 2026-27 season. New details continue to emerge regarding the new agreement, one of which is regarding minimum salaries.

According to Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the league minimum salary will jump from $775K in 2025-26 to $1MM in 2029-30. Seravalli didn’t know if there would be a mild year-on-year increase for the minimum salary, just where it would end up by the time the next CBA ends.

Although the NHL hasn’t projected an upper limit of the salary cap for the 2029-30 season, it marks an odd relative dip in payment for league-minimum salaries. Assuming the cap continues to rise at its current pace of 9% each season, the upper limit for the 2029-30 season would be approximately $134.8MM. This means that a $775K salary in 2025-26 would account for 0.8% of a team’s cap hit, while a $1MM salary in 2029-30 would drop to 0.7%.

Other notes from the new CBA:

  • One of the biggest points of contention was the playoff implications of LTIR. The CBA includes a new salary cap for the playoffs. However, according to Seravalli, teams will only benefit from cap savings equal to the previous year’s average salary, rather than the full cap hit of the player. The only exception to this rule is if the player does not participate in the entire Stanley Cup playoffs.
  • Seravalli also pointed out the new draftee signing rules in the upcoming CBA. A team will hold the signing rights for four years on any 18-year-old that they draft tonight, and three years for any 19-year-old selected. Additionally, for those playing in the NCAA, their signing rights will only expire 30 days after they’ve confirmed with their drafting team that they’re no longer playing at the collegiate level.
  • According to TSN’s Pierre LeBrun, the new CBA will mandate a 75-day window of allowable salary retention. In essence, the new rule effectively eliminated three-team trades at the deadline. If a team wants to orchestrate 75% salary retention on any given player, they’ll need to wait nearly 11 weeks to do so.
  • It’s now confirmed that NHL players will be included in the next two Olympic Games. According to TSN’s Chris Johnston, the new CBA includes language allowing the players to participate in the 2030 Winter Olympics in the French Alps region of France.
  • As a new equipment rule, Seravalli announced that the NHL will make neck guards mandatory for any new player entering the league in the 2026-27 season and beyond. The new equipment rule is no doubt inspired by the late Adam Johnson, who tragically lost his life after getting cut in the neck by a skate in an EIHL game during the 2023-24 season.

NHL, NHLPA Announce MOU For Four-Year CBA Extension

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6/27: In a pre-draft press conference, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman shared that the league has agreed on a Memorandum of Understanding with the NHLPA that, when ratified, would cement a new, four-year CBA, per David Pagnotta of The Fourth Period. The new CBA would begin in the 2026-27 season.

6/26: As expected, all signs indicate the NHL will avoid another lockout. According to multiple reports, the NHL and NHLPA are closing in on a four-year extension for the Collective Bargaining Agreement. In a comprehensive breakdown, which our readers are encouraged to visit, Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff reported some of the more important items mentioned in the upcoming CBA.

Since the new CBA that was ratified in 1995, each NHL team has played an 82-game season, with 41 games at home and 41 away. That will no longer be the case. Due to player concerns about the extended pre-season schedule, the NHL will implement an 84-game schedule starting with the 2026-27 season, likely featuring 42 home games and 42 away games. The pre-season will be shortened to four games, and Seravalli notes that any player who’s accumulated 100 or more games at the NHL level will only be allowed to participate in two of those contests.

Additionally, this will be the last year that a team can re-sign or extend a player on an eight-year deal. Seravalli reports that players re-signing with their current team will be limited to a maximum of seven years, while contracts signed during unrestricted free agency or through offer sheets will be capped at six years. This could have bigger implications this summer, with more teams potentially scrambling to sign their current players while retaining the ability to add another year.

Meanwhile, to address arguably the most important and, objectively, the most-publicized issue, the NHL will create a ’comprehensive playoff salary cap mechanism’ to close the LTIR loophole. In recent years, some playoff-bound teams have placed injured players on LTIR during the regular season, providing them with additional salary cap space to acquire higher-priced talent at the trade deadline. Most of these cases have been investigated and subsequently cleared by the league. However, the NHL is continuing its investigation into the Edmonton Oilers’ use of LTIR with Evander Kane leading up to the 2025 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Lastly, of the large-scale updates, the league confirmed the projected salary cap upper limits for the upcoming three seasons. The cap will rise to $95.5MM in 2025-26, increase by approximately 9% to $104MM in 2026-27, and by another 9% to $113MM in 2027-28.

Seravalli added several other additions to the upcoming CBA. Drafted players’ signing rights will be uniform across the board until they’re 22 years old, the elimination of deferred salary, and the establishment of a permanent emergency backup goaltender who will travel with the teams.

Bettman/Daly Notes: CBA, Olympics, AHL

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NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly held a joint press conference ahead of the first game of the 2025 Stanley Cup Finals. They touched on a variety of league topics, most notably sharing that the league continues to progress well towards a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) with the NHL Players’ Association. The pair shared that CBA negotiations are in “good shape” per Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman. Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic adds that they weren’t yet ready to call the deal close to final.

The NHL is a year out from needing to finalize a new CBA. Early momentum could point towards minimal changes in the next agreement, though the league did comment on a few potential changes. Daly and Bettman said they weren’t concerned about tax differential influencing player’s signing decisions. Later, NHLPA Assistant Executive Ron Hainsey shared that the league could reform the long-term injured reserve to avoid late-season manipulation. Both topics have grown to a roar over recent years, in light of repeated success for the Vegas Golden Knights and the pair of Florida-based teams.

Other notes from Bettman and Daly’s presser:

  • Daly confirmed that the league isn’t expecting Russia to participate in the 2026 Winter Olympics. The country was previously barred from participation at the 2024 Summer Olympics, though athletes were still able to participate under the category of “individual neutral athletes”. Russia’s Men’s Hockey team took home silver at the 2022 Winter Olympics, and gold in 2018, though the NHL did not send players to either competition. With this news, fans will have to wait even longer to see Russian stars take on Olympic competitors. The last time that superstars like Alex Ovechkin and Evgeni Malkin appeared at the Olympics was in 2014. Russia achieved a fifth-place finish that year.
  • Daly also shared that the league is considering opening AHL eligibility to teenagers in the next CBA, per Ryan Kennedy of The Hockey News. The Deputy Commissioner added that the NHL is discussing the change with the NHLPA, and has given advance notice to the CHL – though the dialogue is ongoing. Junior hockey is presently under a monumental shift after the NCAA expanded collegiate eligibility to CHL athletes. Early winds from the decision appear to be pushing major juniors to a younger demographic – momentum that would only seem to grow should the NHL and AHL give players even more options after their draft years.

Daly: NHL, NHLPA Have Made “Good Progress” On CBA Talks

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The 2025-26 NHL season is the last one under the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, which has been in place since the 2012 lockout and was extended/modified in 2020. The relationship between the league and the NHLPA has been on solid footing since the latter appointed former U.S. Secretary of Labor Marty Walsh as its executive director, and reporting throughout the past few months indicated negotiations on a new CBA were expected to go smoothly, avoiding the fourth work stoppage of commissioner Gary Bettman’s tenure.

CBA talks started at the beginning of April and are “well underway,” NHL deputy commissioner told Pierre LeBrun of The Athletic in a recent phone interview (article link). Daly added waiting until the expiry of the current agreement in September 2026 to announce a new CBA is “well beyond the window that I’m thinking… I would like to think that we’ll have a successful conclusion at some point in the not-too-distant future.”

Unsurprisingly, Daly wasn’t eager to divulge too many details about what the agreement will actually look like. However, he did highlight some areas in which to expect significant changes from current operations when pressed by LeBrun.

The storyline dominating this round of CBA talks was always going to be the future of rules regarding long-term injured reserve usage, particularly teams being able to add notable injured players to the postseason roster after they spent the entire regular season giving their club cap relief while on LTIR. Daly confirmed that it’s been a central point of discussions with the NHLPA and that “we’ve made progress toward getting to a good resolution on that issue.” What that resolution looks like – either a playoff salary cap or postseason roster eligibility restrictions based on regular-season LTIR stints – is unclear.

On the topic of expansion, Daly clarified the league’s position that they’re not close to adding a club and don’t plan on opening a formal expansion process. While the league isn’t soliciting bids, the current approach is “much more of a one-on-one conversation and relationship we have with various potential owners,” Daly said. He also called the watering down of talent by adding too many clubs “not even a minor concern” in the league’s eyes, given the game’s skyrocketing registration numbers in the United States and in Europe.

And while the league hasn’t officially put pen to paper on the agreement to send its players to the 2026 Winter Olympics in Milan, that’s purely been due to timeline and procedural issues. Daly reiterated “definitively” that NHL players will participate in the event for the first time in 12 years, and the plan to run World Cups of Hockey every two years between Winter Olympics remains in place.

Snapshots: Brisson, Atlanta, Roadrunners, CBA Talks

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As the Kings continue their search for their new general manager, it appears they kicked the tires on assessing veteran agent Pat Brisson’s interest in the position.  However, Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic relays (Twitter link) that Brisson is not expected to be interviewed for the role as he doesn’t have any interest in leaving his agent role with CAA.  Brisson was believed to be contacted regarding Montreal’s opening a few years ago but wasn’t interested in leaving then either.  He has 94 active NHL contracts, per PuckPedia, carrying a combined cap hit this season of more than $266MM so it’s not surprising that he wants to remain an agent.

Elsewhere around the hockey world:

  • There has been interest in pitching another Atlanta expansion franchise and it appears one group is getting close to making a formal expression of interest. In an appearance on 11 Alive News (video link), Vernon Krause, who is putting together an arena project in Forsyth County, stated that his group is in the “home stretch” to present a “completed package” to the league after the playoffs end next month.  The city had NHL hockey from 1972 to 1980 before the Flames moved to Calgary.  Their second run lasted a little longer, going from 1999 to 2011 before the Thrashers relocated to Winnipeg.  With Krause stating that his intent is to show his group is “shovel-ready” when it comes to an arena, he’ll be trying to make the case that the third time could be the charm.
  • Utah’s AHL team will remain in Tucson for next season, relays longtime team reporter Craig Morgan (Twitter link). However, the Mammoth could be moving their farm team before too much longer.  Nevada Sportsnet’s Chris Murray relayed earlier this week that the Reno Redevelopment Agency Board approved a $435MM arena proposal spearheaded by former Coyotes owner Alex Meruelo, who remains the owner of the Roadrunners.  Morgan notes that the Roadrunners are contracted to stay in Tucson for two more years but those might be the final two years in that city.
  • Speaking to reporters today including Tim Reynolds of the Associated Press, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman indicated that CBA talks are progressing nicely and he hopes to have an extension in place sooner than later. Discussions started earlier this year, well in advance of the expiration of the current agreement in mid-September 2026.

League Notes: All-Star Game, CBA, Draft, Overtime, Rules, Playoff Format

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While there won’t be a repeat of the 4 Nations Face-Off next year, the tournament’s success has been enough to change how the league will use its winter break. There was initially expected to be a 2026 All-Star Game in the leadup to the Winter Olympics, but that won’t be the case – at least in its traditional form, league commissioner Gary Bettman told reporters today (including Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff). The Islanders will still be hosting some sort of event as initially planned, but whether it’s a revamped ASG format or an entirely different event remains to be seen.

More updates from Bettman today:

  • Discussions with the NHLPA on a new Collective Bargaining Agreement will commence the week of April 1, Eric Engels of Sportsnet relays. Negotiations with PA executive director Marty Walsh are expected to be smooth, avoiding the third work stoppage of the century. The league’s and NHLPA’s confidence in ratifying a new CBA quickly was underscored by their rather unprecedented move in January to release salary cap projections three years out. The current CBA, ratified in 2013 and extended in 2020, is set to expire on Sep. 15, 2026.
  • Bettman is “not a fan” of league GMs voting in favor of a decentralized draft format for 2025, per Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet. This year’s run will be hosted by the Kings, but not at Crypto.com Arena – instead in the 7,100-seat Peacock Theater, while league front offices will conduct their business remotely. Top prospects will still be at the event, but picks will likely be read out by the commissioner instead, as GMs won’t be present. The league may move back to its usual draft format with everyone on the floor for 2026.
  • He’s also not enthused with the idea of extending 3-on-3 overtime past its current five-minute length, according to Seravalli. 10-minute 3-on-3 at the 4 Nations round-robin games was viewed as a test run for extending the OT period and having fewer games end in shootouts, but concerns over the deterioration of ice conditions and “additional wear and tear” on players – a few of which expressed their concerns following the tournament – remain paramount. In that vein, Friedman relays that no rule changes were proposed at this weekend’s GM meetings in Florida.
  • Lastly, there’s still no appetite from the league to alter the current playoff format, per Pierre LeBrun of TSN and The Athletic. A large contingent of fans and a few players have expressed support for ditching the wild-card system and returning to a one-through-eight conferenced-based seeding approach, but the divisional brackets are likely here to stay for the foreseeable future.

Updates On The Collective Bargaining Negotiatons

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Before next week’s General Managers Meeting in Palm Beach, FL, The Athletics’ Pierre LeBrun shared a few updates regarding the ongoing Collective Bargaining negotiations and additional notes, in his recurring writeup, NHL Rumblings.

According to LeBrun, next season’s schedule has been tentatively agreed upon. Similarly to this year, next year’s start date will likely be October 7th, and the Stanley Cup Final will likely run to the third week of June. The final schedule may deviate a few days, but we’ll have a clear answer when it’s officially released in July.

Of course, the major scheduling issue is the upcoming XXV Olympic Winter Games in Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy. The 2026 Winter Olympics is expected to have a longer break for NHL players than the most recent 4 Nations Faceoff tournament, which took place between February 12 and February 20. Factoring in the 2026 NHL All-Star Game at UBS Arena, the NHL may have an approximate three-week break for the players.

LeBrun mentioned that commissioner Gary Bettman has already told teams there will be more back-to-back contests next year and a more packed schedule. Since the current iteration of the Collective Bargaining Agreement expires before the 2026-27 season, the NHL and the NHLPA will look to amend the schedule then.

That’s the primary problem LeBrun wrote about. He shared that serious discussions are being had about shortening the preseason and expanding the regular season to 84 games. That would move the regular season start date to the last week of September while keeping the Stanley Cup Final around the same time.

Extending the calendar by a week or two would lower the saturation of regular-season games over a seven-month schedule. It also accounts for the expected Olympic Games and World Cup tournaments every two years.

Another change to the schedule being discussed is removing the requirement of playing at least one game in every NHL arena per season. According to LeBrun, this idea doesn’t have much momentum or support, given that some teams financially benefit from Connor McDavid coming to their stadiums or heavily followed teams such as the Montreal Canadiens, New York Rangers, and Toronto Maple Leafs.

Lastly, LeBrun shared that there are ongoing negotiations regarding the potential removal of the NHL All-Star Game. It wouldn’t come soon, if ever, because the league already has one scheduled for next season. From LeBrun’s write-up, it appears the Board of Governors would like it to stay, but questions are being raised.

Post-Deadline Transaction Restrictions

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While the trade deadline has come and gone, there will still be quite a few transactions made between now and the end of the season.  However, many of those have new restrictions placed on them which are as follows.

Waivers

Teams can still waive players after the trade deadline.  However, if they’re claimed, the player is automatically ineligible to play for the remainder of the season.  We will likely still see some waiver activity closer to the end of the year if a player who is on recall and is AHL playoff-eligible needs to clear to return to the minors.

Trades

While the term ‘trade deadline’ would imply a hard cap on trades now, that’s not the case.  However, similar to players claimed on waivers post-deadline, those players are ineligible to play down the stretch.  Over the next week, we will likely see a player or two traded for future considerations to add someone for their AHL team; their trade deadline is exactly one week after the NHL deadline on March 14.  Rights to unsigned players will also likely be moved in the coming weeks.

Signings

A player not on an NHL reserve list that signs can play down the stretch during the regular season but is ineligible to play in the playoffs.  We see this typically with college free agent signings who get into a game or two for the stretch run, but technically a player on an AHL contract can sign an NHL deal and play with that team until the playoffs.

AHL Eligibility

For a player to be assigned to the minors, that player must have been on an AHL roster at the trade deadline.  Otherwise, even if the player is waiver-exempt, he is ineligible to play in the minors.  An exception can be made for a player needing a conditioning loan from a long-term injury.  This rule is why there were so many ‘paper transactions’, moves to put a player in the minors before the deadline to keep them eligible to play there down the stretch.

Recalls

This is the one that comes into play the most after the deadline.  Teams are limited to four non-emergency recalls between now and the end of the season.  Players recalled from paper transactions count against the four, so several teams will have less than four to work with immediately.

An emergency situation is created when a team has fewer than 12 healthy forwards, six healthy defensemen, or two healthy goaltenders available.  In those cases, a player can be recalled under emergency conditions if the team has cap space to do so.  However, when that team gets the injured player(s) back, the recalled player must return to the minors.  Otherwise, his recall is converted from an emergency one to a regular one and would count against the limit of four.

Pretty much every team will still be involved in transactions of some sort over the next few weeks, but they’ll have to be mindful of these restrictions when they make them.

NHL To Fine Dallas Stars For CBA Violation

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According to TSN’s Darren Dreger, the National Hockey League will fine the Dallas Stars organization for violating certain terms in the current Collective Bargaining Agreement between the NHL and the NHLPA. The NHL hasn’t directly confirmed the punishment but the Stars organization is expected to pay a $100K fine.

The punishment was warranted because Dallas held an ’optional’ practice on December 26th. The CBA strictly prohibits practice and travel for their terms on certain days during the holidays of the regular season so no team has a competitive advantage over another.

This isn’t the first time a team has been fined for violating the CBA over a holiday break. Two years ago, the Toronto Maple Leafs were fined $100K for a similar infraction. Toronto left one day early from 2022’s holiday freeze for a game against the St. Louis Blues. Outside of Toronto’s example, the last time a team was fined for a similar event was in 2015 when the Philadelphia Flyers left a day earlier than allowed.

There’s no evidence the Stars deliberately attempted to circumvent the CBA, as they may have reasonably believed making the practice optional would limit the league’s concern. However, Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman believes the CBA’s language is fairly black and white saying, “There are rules about what you’re not allowed to do. You’re not allowed to practice, you are not allowed to provide ice to players. The Stars had some kind of skate on Boxing Day, and that has gotten the league’s attention.“

Central Notes: Stars, Avalanche, Wild, Bortuzzo

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The Stars are being investigated by the league for a possible CBA violation over the holiday break, report Michael Russo and Joe Smith of The Athletic (subscription link).  Head coach Peter DeBoer indicated on Friday that there was an optional skate held on Thursday.  However, teams aren’t permitted to hold any sort of on-ice sessions with players between December 24th and 26th with this skate being held on the 26th.  The league sent a memo to all 32 teams on Monday reminding them of the rule prohibiting travel or ice time.  Back in 2022, Toronto was fined $100K for violating the travel portion of the rule so if the league levies a penalty to Dallas following their investigation, it’s likely to be at or above that amount.

More from the Central:

  • Avalanche defenseman Oliver Kylington had been listed as out week-to-week but that has been changed to month-to-month, reports NHL.com’s Ryan Boulding (Bluesky link). He has missed the last four weeks with an upper-body injury but hasn’t been progressing in his recovery.  However, there should be some good news coming on the injury front as Boulding adds that winger Jonathan Drouin could return on Tuesday.  He has missed the last month with an upper-body injury and has been limited to just five games so far this season due to injuries.
  • Wild center Joel Eriksson Ek skated today and the team is hopeful he can return to the lineup in one of Minnesota’s next two games, notes Sarah McLellan of the Minneapolis Star-Tribune (Twitter link). He has missed a little more than three weeks with a lower-body injury and while he was off to a rough start offensively with 13 points in 22 games, he’d be a welcome addition to a Wild group that has struggled in recent weeks.
  • Utah defenseman Robert Bortuzzo skated with the team today and has been cleared for contact, relays Brogan Houston of the Deseret News (Twitter link). The veteran has missed a little over two weeks so far due to a lower-body injury.  Bortuzzo has played in 15 games this season but has been limited to just two assists in a little over 11 minutes a night of ice time.

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