The NHL Salary Cap is projected to go up next season- but by how much?
According to Larry Brooks of the New York Post, the depreciation of the Canadian dollar (which currently sits at $.88 cents to the dollar in relation to US currency) could freeze the NHL Salary Cap at a cold, unyielding $69 million for the upcoming season.
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Multiple teams already hurt this off-season by the cap falling short of the projected estimate- instead of $71 million to work with, many teams were stuck letting go of good players, holding off on contract renewals, and awarding bridge deals to restricted free agents. Some teams were even forced to trade top line skaters for draft picks, just in order to squad under the $69 million limit.
Could they be in for even more trouble next season?
While there’s been no official report of what revenue returns are looking like right now (probably because the season is only a month and a half in), it’s unlikely that the league will see such a drastic financial collapse- which, should the cap stay under $70 million for the second season in a row, is essentially what would be happening.
Why? First, the league saw an enormous dividend return on the stadium series from this past season, which saw a multi-million dollar profit injection paid out to each team that will count towards this year’s final numbers. If anything, that will raise the salary cap on it’s own.
Second, the league will not only host the stadium series- there’s no Winter Olympic Game in 2015, so the NHL will have an All-Star game, as well. It will be held by the Columbus Blue Jackets the weekend of January 24-25; with the league missing out on this revenue in 2013 as well (due to the lockout), this will inject extra revenue that teams have been unable to see for two seasons. The teams won’t see this money until the 2015-2016 season, but it’s going to be an anticipatory profit increase; if anything, this will count towards the league’s confidence, and give the salary cap a bit of a premature boost.
Finally, the league has seen increased stability this year. The New York Islanders and the Arizona Coyotes– two of the teams who previously had spent significant time in the red- are under new ownership, and hoping to see some financial injection to stabilize the two teams’ finances.
It’s too early to tell what the cap will be, so fans shouldn’t be surprised if higher-bankroll teams aren’t re-signing pending free agents right away. Don’t let your hopes fall too much, though- Gary Bettman has seen positive numbers for the league for years, and fans shouldn’t expect to see that changing any time soon.
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