Salary Cap: The Canadiens Are Among the Teams to Watch

The salary cap rose from $95.5 million to $104 million this summer. It could have gone up even more dramatically, but the NHL and the Players' Association decided that an $8.5 million increase was enough.

Revenues are so strong right now in the NHL—players no longer need to put a portion of their salaries in escrow—and there's no indication that growth will slow down in the coming years. Especially with two to four expansion teams expected to join the league…

The salary cap is even expected to reach $113.5 million in eleven months. The financial success of the NHL and its teams drives the salary cap… which, in turn, drives the annual salaries of star players. Just ask Leo Carlsson, Connor Bedard, Darren Raddysh, and the rest.

We've said it before, but Kent Hughes managed to sign his star players to eight-year deals before this summer's salary cap inflation. As a result, Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Lane Hutson, and Ivan Demidov are all under contract for another four years or more. Ivan Demidov, in fact, is under contract through June 30, 2035!

Slafkovsky said a few days ago that the guys aren't upset about making a little less money than they could have if they'd waited a bit; what the guys want is to win the Stanley Cup.

The Canadiens aren't in a tight spot right now. They have only the 15th-highest cap hit in the NHL: $93.37 million.

What will they do with their $11 million in available cap space? They'll need to reach agreements with Zachary Bolduc and Arber Xhekaj… and they'll have some wiggle room to complete their rebuild when the time comes.

Emily Sadler of Sportsnet published an article over the weekend in which she lists five teams that will face intriguing decisions regarding their payrolls. The others are the Stars, the Ducks, the Avalanche, and the Sharks.

Sadler's reasoning is simple: what is Kent Hughes planning to do in the future with all the cap space he'll accumulate?

Brendan Gallagher's salary cap hold will disappear next summer, the cap will rise again, and the contracts of Phillip Danault, Josh Anderson, and Alexandre Carrier will expire…

But the new contracts for Ivan Demidov and Jakub Dobes will take effect.

The fact remains that Kent Hughes will have many millions of dollars to spend. Will he use them to (finally) acquire a true second-line center?

The Sportsnet writer merely posed questions; she did not provide any answers or speculations.