Old Is New: 10 Things To Watch In The 2026-27 NHL Season

After years of a salary cap that was flatter than a cross-ice saucer pass from Nikita Kucherov, NHL teams are making it rain. Apparently, there’s a lot of money in this hockey thing.

In the 22 years since the NHL adopted a cap, it has risen by $65 million per team. But it has never jumped more than it did between last season and 2026-27, going from $95.5 million to $104 million. And next season, it’s projected to jump even more, when, give or take a couple hundred thousand bucks, it will be $113.5 million.

Teams are handling their newfound spending power the same way Tom Hanks’ character did when he got his first paycheck in Big. The continuous rise in the cap is what made Darren Raddysh an $8.5-million-a-year defenseman.

It’s what prompted the Philadelphia Flyers to help make a 67-point player an $18-million-per-year man. And it’s what prompted the Seattle Kraken to swing for the fences with a $15-million-per-season offer to Jason Robertson.

And it’s bound to make teams do a lot more drastic stuff, as fans get used to the guy who was once a $5-million player becoming a $7-million man. It will be fascinating to see where all of this goes this season, along with a few other things we’re keeping on the radar.

You didn’t think these guys were going to get all this money and not have to earn it, did you? For the first time in more than 30 years, when teams played two neutral-site games each in 1992-93 and ’93-94, the NHL is increasing its schedule to 84 games for each club.

Two more spins around the ice might not seem like much, but when teams are already taxing their star players, it could be the difference between being healthy and missing the playoffs with an injury. Can you say NBA-style load management?

Getting Aleksander Barkov back will undoubtedly improve the Florida Panthers’ prospects of getting back to the playoffs and competing for the Stanley Cup, but they offset the return of the perennial Lady Byng candidate by assembling an even larger array of miscreants.

While they unloaded sneaky-dirty A.J. Greer, they added Brady Tkachuk, Radko Gudas and Garnet Hathaway to a group that already includes Matthew Tkachuk, Brad Marchand and Sam Bennett. It might be a good idea for the Department of Player Safety to have Bill Zito on speed dial. Which brings us to…

If the Pacific Division was a pillow fight last season, the Atlantic could be Armageddon this year. Already home to five of the league’s top 10 regular-season teams, and the only division to boast five playoff teams in 2025-26, the Atlantic continues to be a battleground.

The Panthers will be much better if they can remain healthy. The Lightning will be the Lightning. The Buffalo Sabres and Montreal Canadiens served notice that they’re serious about being contenders. And while only time will tell if the Toronto Maple Leafs’ array of moves will make them vastly better, there will be no shortage of intrigue.

An unrepentant Mike Babcock made it clear in his first press conference as coach of the Edmonton Oilers that he has little intention of deviating from the style he has employed for pretty much all of his career. Whether that results in a Stanley Cup parade or a tire fire in northern Alberta, it will make for a gripping drama.

But if some iteration of the three-headed monster of Frederik Andersen, Tristan Jarry and Devon Levi can’t solve the Oilers’ goaltending problems, Babcock could be the second coming of Jack Adams, Toe Blake, Al Arbour and Scotty Bowman wrapped into one, and it wouldn’t make a difference.

You can never tell with these freaks, but wouldn’t it be something if Alex Ovechkin and Sidney Crosby used this season as a farewell tour and rode off into the sunset after 22 years?

We have no idea what these guys have in mind, but what if Ovechkin scores 35 goals again this season, which would leave him just 36 short of 1,000? And passing Wayne Gretzky is great and all, but when you have the opportunity to knock Cal Clutterbuck off his roost, you take it. Ovechkin will become the all-time leader in hits if he registers 153 this season.

The far-too-early front-runner for top pick in the 2027 NHL draft is defenseman Landon DuPont, who, if he does go first overall, will be picked 27 years after and 269 choices ahead of his father, Micki.

Taking his talents to the University of Michigan after playing with the Everett Silvertips last season, DuPont hopes to become the second consecutive player to go from starring in the WHL to being selected No. 1 after making the jump to college hockey.

DuPont’s status will be challenged by Alexis Joseph, Milan Sundstrom, Nazar Privalov and likely some other pimply-faced kid nobody beyond scouts and draft nerds has ever heard of yet.

Labor issues just don’t have the rancor they did in the good old days, when everyone knew a lockout was coming from two years out and the leadership of the NHLPA and the league weren’t constantly holding hands and singing Kumbaya.

This season marks the start of a new collective bargaining agreement that will guarantee labor peace for the next four years. It will also allow players to keep demanding no-move clauses that will tie them to their teams for the duration of their contracts.

Unless, of course, they decide they want to move on, but only to Vegas or Florida. Which brings us to…

With American stars Quinn Hughes and Brady Tkachuk forcing their way out of Canadian markets with trade requests, there is some fear north of the 49th parallel, and in some smaller U.S. markets, that others will follow suit.

Already, Connor Hellebuyck of the Winnipeg Jets and Dylan Larkin of the Detroit Red Wings have expressed a desire to move. Norris Trophy winner Zach Werenski now says he wants to stay in Columbus, but that won’t stop the chatter about his future.

Both Hellebuyck and Larkin have term on their deals, so there’s no immediate pressure for their teams to trade them.

The crop of UFAs for the summer of 2027 is boffo – until it isn’t because many of them will be signed during the season. Leading the way is Colorado Avalanche defenseman Cale Makar, who will at some point become the league’s highest-earning player.

Quinn Hughes will have to decide whether his future will be in Minnesota. And another 100-point season from Kucherov at 34 would make it difficult for the Tampa Bay Lightning not to offer him another big-money, long-term contract to retain his services.

Certainly tired of seeing its All-Star Weekend festivities turn into a snore fest where nobody hits and nobody cares, the NHL is trying something new with its mid-season showcase.

Scheduled for Feb. 5 and 6 on Long Island, the event will be a 3-on-3 tournament featuring teams made up of players from Canada, the U.S., Sweden, Finland and ‘The Rest Of The World.’

Each player on the winning team stands to take home almost $182,000, which is not chump change…Wait, we’ve just been told that $182,000 is indeed chump-change, couch-cushion money by NHL standards.

This article appeared in The Hockey News' 2026-27 Yearbook And Fantasy Guide.

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