Salary Cap Expected To Rise Over $4M
Over the last four seasons, NHL players have worked on repaying owners a $1 billion debt as a result of the pandemic. With both parties moving forward from that, it allows for the league's salary cap to make a significant jump for the first time since the 2018 offseason.
For the past five seasons the number, which is $83.5M this year, has increased by $2M or less, but for the 2024-25 season, Bettman shared publicly that it is expected to go up to $87.7M. A boost of 5%, the step forward is part of a projected path that had been previously laid out by the NHL, which estimates the salary cap getting up to $92M by the start of the 2025-26 campaign.
This is incredibly important to the Canes because there is a plethora of business to be attended to in terms of free agents at season's end.
The following active roster players are expected to be restricted free agents (RFAs) for Carolina following the conclusion of this season:
- Jack Drury
- Seth Jarvis
- Martin Necas
Drury and Jarvis are both in the final year of their entry-level contracts and it is fair to expect that both will make more than their current cap hits ($925k, $894k, respectively). Necas, who signed a two-year, $3M AAV bridge deal in 2021, could also be in line to make more.
In addition to that trio, the following players on the team are unrestricted free agents (UFAs):
- Jalen Chatfield
- Tony DeAngelo
- Brendan Lemieux
- Jordan Martinook
- Stefan Noesen
- Antti Raanta
- Brett Pesce
- Brady Skjei
- Teuvo Teravainen
Currently, those players make up over $21.9M of the Canes' salary cap or over 26% of it.
Without even having to go into the fine details of what those players bring to the table, you can understand the gist - the team is going to need every penny possible this summer.
The cap expected to go up is certainly welcomed news.
To view the Canes' contract tracker, click here.
