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The NHL continues to grapple with the affects of the COVID pandemic. Revenues continue to be a huge concern for the league, and as a result, the league-mandated salary cap may remain flat for a longer period of time than originally projected.
Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman reported in this weeks “31 Thoughts” podcast that he is hearing the salary cap could remain flat for as many as five more seasons.
“You know, I have to tell you too Jeff. I had someone say to me this week that based on what they’re hearing revenues are and what the money that’s going to be owed from the players to the league, they are not expecting the cap to go up for 5 years.” -Friedman https://t.co/D94BC6AUkn
— Mark Scheig (@markscheig) May 29, 2021
It was previously projected that the current $81.5 million salary cap would likely remain in place for the next season or two, but five more years is a new forecast based on actual revenues accrued. This is obviously something cap-strapped teams, like the Washington Capitals, will struggle to contend with, should the stagnating growth continue to linger.
The salary cap has remained at $81.5 million since the 2019-20 season. We should hear more about formal numbers for the 2021-22 season in the coming weeks prior to the Stanley Cup final.
By Jon Sorensen
Follow @nova_caps
The NHL has to let teams know one way or the other before the Seatle draft. But if true, I fear it means a fire sale for the Caps.
They don’t need a fire sale, just to get rid of 92 and his overpriced contract. Though that will likely require giving up another reasonably priced player/prospect/pick.
Agree. One large contract will help tremendously. They need to look at prospects closely and make a call on which “fat” contract can be best replaced by a prospect. Kuzy is 9.5% of Capitals salary cap.
News flash, just getting rid of Kuzys contract isn’t enough. They would still be up against the limit after resigning everyone they need to, which once again won’t let them call up people from Hershey as players get hurt, again.
This is simply a false statement. Cutting $7.8 million will certainly help. And no they wouldn’t be up against the cap if they did. Kuzy is nearly 10% (9.5%) of Caps entire salary cap. You need to work on your math.
How many free agents do the Caps need to resign and how many replacements do they need to bring in/up? $7.8 million MIGHT cover that. If it does, the team will be right up against the limit, again, which will prevent them from bringing in replacements for injuries, again. I respect what you guys are doing with this website, but your math needs to be checked, not mine.
They have one free agent they need to re-sign. Ovechkin. Chara, LaDue and Anderson are the only other UFA’s, none of which will be re-signed. You need to crunch the numbers.
So RFAs don’t count? How about what it’s going to cost to replace Kuzy and Chara? Then there’s the next season. Where’s all that money coming from? Dumping Kuzy, and Carlson won’t cover it with a flat salary cap. My math is fine.
There are no RFA’s on the roster, so no, they don’t count. Fehervary is replacing Chara. I don’t think you know what your talking about…at all.
But if you want to learn, start here: https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/capitals