Report: NHL salary cap to increase, despite financial difficulties

The latest on the cap for 2022 and beyond from NHL insider Frank Seravalli.

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HockeyFeed
Published 2 years ago
Report: NHL salary cap to increase, despite financial difficulties
Zuma Press

According to a report from NHL insider Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff, the NHL's salary cap is expected to rise $1 million to $82.5 million for the 2022-23 season.

Check it out:

From Seravalli's column:

The NHL is projecting a $1 million bump in the salary cap to $82.5 million next offseason ahead of the 2022-23 season, according to sources, which would mark the first rise in the league’s upper-limit since the COVID-19 significantly upended business operations, de-linked the cap from revenue and ballooned a billion-dollar debt load that players are working to pay back to owners.
Until then, the NHL will play a third straight season starting in October with a frozen $81.5 million salary cap, though teams and free agents gained flexibility this summer via the additional money pumped into the system by the Seattle Kraken joining as the league’s 32nd franchise.
A rise to $82.5 million in 2022-23 would likely trigger the start of a “lag formula,” as agreed upon in Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations between the NHL and NHL Players’ Association in 2020, that could see the salary cap climb $1 million each offseason until the escrow balance owed to owners is paid off.
According to sources, the NHL is projecting hockey-related revenue in the $4.8 billion range for the upcoming 2021-22 season. Given that figure includes the increased revenue generated from the two new U.S. national television rights deals with the Walt Disney Company (ESPN) and Warner Media (Turner Sports), plus the juice from a new Kraken club that will almost surely be in the top quartile in revenue, that the NHL’s projection is still south of the pre-pandemic pace of $4.9 billion in 2019-20 would suggest that league bean counters believe some buildings will not be back to full capacity for at least a chunk of this upcoming season.

While it's not much, it's at least an indication that the league is once again moving in the right direction financially. But, I think that idea was mostly confirmed when NHL owners and GMs handed out multi-year, multi-million contracts like Halloween candy on July 28th when the free agent period officially opened for business.

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