The NHL has given general managers and coaches a valuable tool as they head into the first Stanley Cup Playoffs that will require all official game lineups to be compliant with the NHL salary cap.
In February, the NHL, in partnership with SAP, introduced the playoff cap projector as part of the SAP-NHL Front Office app that is available to all NHL front offices with users approved by the League’s Central Registry department.
The playoff cap projector is a simple yet state-of-the-art tab available on the team page section of the Front Office app that is available on Apple iPhones and iPads.
Approved front office members and coaches will be able to input the team’s projected game lineup at any point and instantaneously see if it is cap compliant or over the $95.5 million salary cap.
“They’ll be able to build a roster that is compliant with the playoff salary cap and submit it as their active roster for the playoff game,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said. “That makes it much easier obviously and less work intensive for everybody, including the clubs.”
It’s an essential tool that guarantees teams will comply with the new “Playoff Cap Counting” that is outlined in the new Collective Bargaining Agreement, requiring teams to dress a lineup of 18 skaters and two goalies that is cap compliant for every playoff game.
The new four-year CBA does not go into effect until next season, but the playoff cap is being introduced this season.
“I think now obviously with that new tier (playoff cap) you’ve got to make sure your math works, and I don’t think they could have made it any better than how it’s going to be utilized,” Colorado Avalanche general manager Chris MacFarland said. “Obviously, you have your management staff and cap people, and we have great people that help me with that internally, so everything we do leading into the Trade Deadline we have the tracks going of what our cap is now and what the implications are for the potential playoff roster. We’re well equipped both internally and now with what the league provides. It’s incredible.”
The NHL and SAP introduced the first version of the Front Office app for iPads only in December of 2024.
The app gives teams a League-wide view of salary cap information for each team in list and grid views, contract information for every player, PDFs of every standard player contract, future draft picks and any conditions associated with them, player game logs featuring video of each player’s specific shifts, and much more.
The Front Office app became compatible with iPhones this past December, with the League seeing an increase in usage of the app through its analytics.
The playoff cap projector was added as a tab in February as the implementation model for playoff cap counting.
“(Playoff cap counting) was drafted into the CBA but it was drafted into the CBA before we focused on implementation,” Daly said. “So, on implementation, once we focused on it, we could use SAP and the platform they provide us with the NHL Front Office app and make it part of that.”
The implementation in February allowed teams to effectively plan roster moves in advance of the 2026 NHL Trade Deadline on March 6 with an eye toward their playoff cap counting.
NHL vice president digital business development Chris Foster said usage of the Front Office app spiked in days leading up to the roster freeze for the Winter Olympics on Feb. 8 and the Trade Deadline on March 6.
“Coming out of the break to the trade deadline our engagement was 16 times what it was previously, and the highest spike was the day before the deadline,” Foster said. “You can just see they’re using it when they need to use it.”
The playoff cap projector defaults to the previous game’s lineup, but users can make changes as they see fit.
They can create an unlimited number of potential lineups. It even allows them to create a place-saving space, creating a specific salary cap number to see if an actual player with that cap number would fit in the lineup.
The actual submission of game lineups will not change, but the projector provides teams the tool to know in advance if the lineup the coach wants to use will be cap compliant.
“It takes out all the guesswork,” San Jose Sharks general manager Mike Grier said. “We’ve played around with it, especially at the deadline, moving guys in and out of it. It’s a very helpful app. Even someone who has been in the minors but makes $2 million what that does that look like if you bring him up. It’s really helpful. It takes a lot of the pressure off your staff trying to crunch numbers and figure out what works. You literally just type in what your lineup would be for that night and it tells you if you’re compliant or not.”
Foster said the NHL designed the app internally. SAP copied and mapped the contract information and cap data from Central Registry into its own SAP HANA database, creating the ability to process the data and provide real-time calculations.
“One of the strengths of the SAP Business Technology Platform is it’s integration capabilities,” said Daniel Beringer, SAP’s global head of technology and innovation, and global sponsorships. “With what we call the integration suite we are able to connect to any data source you can imagine. Data sources can be highly dynamic like the moving puck or more static like a contract that is signed and stays unchanged. Whatever original data source type it is or size it is or whether it’s structured or unstructured data can all be easily integrated to the SAP HANA cloud. SAP helps solve the biggest challenges there. When it’s not so easy, we’ll make it easy.
“The easier people can log in and find the information that they’re looking for, the shorter the path to value, the more adoption we see, the more usage we see. Nobody is happy with the investment in these solutions if we don’t end up seeing high adoption.”
Foster said the League has found that most teams have between 2-3 approved users for the app, though some have more, such as the Nashville Predators, who have seven.
“Only upwards and onwards from here,” Beringer said. “As long as people see the value there will be continued funding to continue to make it better and better and better, and the old paper folder will be for the museum.”
