NHL Insider Elliotte Friedman reports the salary cap could rise more than expected in the coming seasons, potentially giving the Detroit Red Wings significantly more flexibility to make future roster moves.
The NHL is continually growing as each NHL franchise has seen their value grow exponentially over recent years (Detroit almost doubling in the last four seasons) and with that comes new changes. Insiders have given rough estimates for how much the salary cap is expected to grow over the next two seasons with Sportsnet's Elliotte Friedman bringing up a new, bigger number.
On his podcast '32 Thoughts' Friedman explained that he's heard from more than one source that the salary cap next season could potentially rise to $107 million. This would be a sizeable $11.5 million jump from this years cap at $95.5 million and could open open up several avenues for teams around the league like the Detroit Red Wings.
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If GM Steve Yzerman opts to not re-signing aging veterans in Patrick Kane, James van Riemsdyk, Ben Chiarot, Travis Hamonic and Cam Talbot, they would free up $12.25 million in cap space plus another million with this season being the final year of Justin Abdelkader's buyout. This on top of Detroit's current $13.2 million in cap space as of today will give them a lot of flexibility heading into next July as they could make lengthy extensions to young talent like restricted free agents Simon Edvinsson and Jonatan Berggren or taking a run at a big ticket free agent like Winnipeg's Kyle Connor.
"I've had a couple people mentioned the number 107 to me, as you mentioned, supposed to be 104 next year, I'm hearing the number 107 come up," Friedman explained to co-host Kyle Bukauskas "I think there are some people who really think, even the year after, where it's temporarily at least it's in pencil for 113 that that could go even higher."
Based on Friedman's comments, it's safe to say that the hockey world as a whole will be anxiously awaiting for the answer to what the future cap will be and he alluded to when we can expect an answer. The NHL's Board of Governors will meet at some point next week and will again at the start of December with rises in the cap on the list of topics for the meeting, according to Friedman.
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