NHL TEAMS THAT BENEFIT THE MOST FROM THE RISING SALARY CAP

Yesterday, the NHL projected the salary cap to see an increase to 83 million dollars. Which teams will benefit the most from this news?

When the salary cap was first introduced back in 2005-2006, it was $39 million and it has been growing periodically as the league gained more money. Last season, the salary cap was $79.5 million and according to the NHL, this number is expected to grow to $83 million.

Many teams benefit from this increase, but some much more than most. These three teams have a lot of free agents coming up at the end of the season and will really need the extra wiggle room to work with.

1. TORONTO MAPLE LEAFS

Current cap space: $5.8 million

Cap space next season: $23 million

The Toronto Maple Leafs have not had cap problems in a long time. For the past three years, all their star rookies have been on Entry-Level Contracts and before that, the team sucked too much to have good players. Now, they’re about to enter a massive cap crunch.

They have a lot of RFA’s coming up at the end of the season, most notably Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. With William Nylander and his new contract of six years and $6.9 million, Marner and Matthews will be looking for more. On top of that, the Leafs have another four RFAs to sign and five UFAs to deal with.

RFAs

Auston Matthews

Mitch Marner

Kasperi Kapanen

Andreas Johnsson

Igor Ozhiganov

Garret Sparks

UFAs

Par Lindholm

Tyler Ennis

Jake Gardiner

Ron Hainsey

Martin Marincin

As of right now, the Maple Leafs have almost 6 million in extra cap room, and according to Cap Friendly, they will have over $23 million freed up space for next season. Tack on the extra 3.5 and the Leafs now have over $26 million dollars to put to use. This is plenty of money for the two young superstars and the extra money can be used to pay complementary wingers such as Kasperi Kapanen and Andreas Johnsson.

2. ST. LOUIS BLUES

Current cap space: $49,000

Cap space next season: $18.9 million

The St. Louis Blues have not had proper goaltending in years. Their team is great up front, especially with the center depth, and yet they cannot keep the puck out of their own net. None of their goalies have a save percentage above .900 and they will be looking to fix that for next season.

Doug Armstrong has his work cut out for him as the Blues currently have less than $50,000 in cap space. The landscape will change next season as they have 6 UFAs, including goaltender Chad Johnson coming off the books next season which will free up over 18 million dollars.

Additionally, the Blues have 5 RFAs who need a new contract for next season, including Joel Edmunson and Zachary Sanford. The additional 3.5 million will bring the Blues up to 21.5 million in cap space, exactly what they need to find a goaltender to steady their team. With Sergei Bobrovsky and Semyon Varlamov reaching free agency, perhaps the Blues will target one of them.

RFAs

Zachary Sanford

Ivan Barbashev

Oskar Sundqvist

Samuel Blais

Joel Edmunson

UFAs

Patrick Maroon

Jordan Nolan

Jay Bouwmeester

Robert Bortuzzo

Chris Butler

Chad Johnson

3. PITTSBURGH PENGUINS

Current cap space: $160,000

Cap space next season: $10.3 million

The Pittsburgh Penguins have been one of the biggest surprises so far (they are 24th in the league). Their core is still intact and they still have the best player on the planet so as long as they quickly retool, everything should be fine. As of right now, however, the Penguins have no wiggle room as they have roughly $100,000 in cap space.

Cap Friendly projects a $10.3 million cap increase for the Penguins which they can use to get complementary players and resign their UFAs. They have 7 unrestricted free agents and 4 RFAs that they need to figure out what to do with.

RFAs

Zach Aston Reese

Jake Guentzel

Juuso Riikola

Marcus Pettersson

UFAs

Derick Brassard

Riley Sheahan

Derek Grant

Garrett Wilson

Chad Ruhwedel

Casey Desmith

An important player to look out for is Matt Murray. Next season he will be an RFA and will be demanding a lot of money so the Penguins will need to put some money aside for their key goaltender.

Obviously, the salary cap increase will be positive for every team, but for these three, it means a little more. Now they have the chance to acquire and keep the players they need to push their teams over the top. This news is great for the league because it means that the NHL’s profits are growing, which is beneficial for everyone.