Julien BriseBois, General Manager of the Tampa Bay Lightning, celebrates with the Stanley Cup following the victory over the Montreal Canadiens in Game 5 of the 2021 NHL Stanley Cup Final.
For years, Stanley Cup contenders have exploited the NHL salary cap to their advantage. The unlimited cap in the playoffs allowed teams to stash players on long-term injured reserve, fill that money void with trade deadline additions, then bring back the injured player on the playoff roster while blatantly exceeding the regular-season cap.
Most notably and most egregiously, the 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning did this with Nikita Kucherov, whose $9.5 million cap hit did not count while he was on LTIR. Tampa then signed Anthony Cirelli to an extension worth $4.8M annually, and added defenseman David Savard ($4.25M cap hit at the time) at the trade deadline. That’s $9.05M between the two. Hmm. Interesting.
Well, no more shenanigans for Lightning GM Julien BriseBois, or any other executive that (understandably) abused this insane loophole over the years. NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daley announced at a recent meeting of coaches and GMs in Detroit that teams will need to keep their playoff rosters within the salary cap, effective immediately for the 2026 playoffs.
That shouldn’t be much of an issue, seeing as the cap is jumping from $88 million to $95.5M for the 2025-26 season, and will continue to jump over the next couple of years. But the Lightning and other teams won’t be able to go way over the cap in the playoffs, like when they went over by $19.7 million in 2021.
Daly confirmed that the “playoff cap” will take effect for the coming season, as will changes to long-term IR rules, but the full machinations have yet to be finalized. There are other provisions that may not be implemented until next July 1, the start of the 2026-27 league year, or until the next collective bargaining agreement becomes official.
Jun 14, 2022; Denver, Colorado, USA; Tampa Bay Lightning general manager Julien Brisebois speaks during media day for the 2022 Stanley Cup Final at Ball Arena. Mandatory Credit: Ron Chenoy-USA TODAY Sports
The current CBA expires on Sept. 15, 2026, after which the new one begins and runs through Sept. 15, 2030. But the NHL is still going to override the CBA in order to institute the playoff salary cap and LTIR changes for the coming season.
That will make for more difficult decisions for playoff contenders, as far as how to handle long-term injuries and how to manage their cap heading into the postseason.
The 2022 Bruins draft pick will play for the defending NCAA champs in 2025-26.
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