For years now, the National Hockey League has fallen behind the other major leagues in North America in terms of popularity, with the sport drawing the lowest viewership of all four. However, that hasn't hurt their business, as the team have expanded not once, but twice since 2018, and since the 2020 pandemic, the business of the NHL under commissioner Gary Bettman is absolutely booming.
In 2024-25, the salary cap for a team in the NHL was set at $88 million, and ahead of this past regular season, Bettman announced a massive rise, as that number rose $7.5 million per franchise to $95.5 million.
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Once again in 2025-26, the business of the league continues to thrive, and with the NHL's return to the Olympics, interest in the sport of hockey has taken a leap that we've not seen in quite some time. With the Stanley Cup Playoffs in full swing, Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman has announced that the league have informed teams of the salary cap for 2026-27, with some more major changes coming.
According to Friedman's report, the league is set to see another major jump, with the ceiling for a team sitting at $104 million, representing a change of +$8.5 million for next season.
Perhaps the most interesting part of this is the maximum salary for a player, as that has reportedly been set at $20.8 million per year, and with Kirill Kaprizov currently No. 1 in the NHL at $17M per season, someone is going to benefit in a big way from these changes.
With so many teams feeling as though they are in contention for a Stanley Cup, the rise in salary cap could make this a chaotic summer, and with so many big contracts coming up for young players, this change could impact the future of so many franchises around the league.
