The NHL on Saturday set the salary cap for the upcoming 2024-25 season at an even $88 million — a $4.5 million raise from this past season’s cap of $83.5 million, and a slight bump from the league’s previously anticipated figure of $87.7 million.
The salary floor is set at $65 million. It was previously set at $61.7 million.
The cap and floor are set each season based off of the previous season’s revenue. This $4.5 million jump is the first big leap since the financial impact of COVID led to the cap being limited to small raises, if any raise at all.
A roster with the following signed players would result in a team cap hit of $76,304,339, with some holes still needing to be filled:
Forwards (12): Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Bryan Rust, Reilly Smith, Rickard Rakell, Michael Bunting, Lars Eller, Noel Acciari, Drew O’Connor, Matt Nieto, Jesse Puljujarvi, Valtteri Puustinen
Defensemen (6): Erik Karlsson, Kris Letang, Ryan Graves, Marcus Pettersson, John Ludvig, Jack St. Ivany
Goaltenders (1): Tristan Jarry
That anticipated cap hit includes dead cap hit from $1,562,500 of retained salary in the Jeff Petry trade and $916,667 on the books from the Jack Johnson buyout.
That would result in the Penguins having $11,695,661 in cap space. They’d still need a backup goaltender, obviously, and teams generally like to carry an extra forward and defensemen too. Kyle Dubas told me here in Buffalo on Saturday that the door wasn’t closed on Alex Nedeljkovic returning, and that pending restricted free agent P.O Joseph would be given a qualifying offer if not re-signed before the deadline.
That figure doesn’t include Nieto likely beginning the season on season-opening injured reserve, which would provide salary cap relief on his $900,000 cap hit only for as long as he is out as he recovers from his knee surgery.
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