Originally posted on Daily Faceoff
The NHL’s salary cap is set for its first significant increase since 2019 – and a handful of teams were quite literally banking on it. That’s because 11 teams, more than one-third of the league, already spent a chunk of next season’s projected $4.3 million increase by exceeding this season’s cap with bonus overage penalties.
Multiple teams are expected to carry over more than $2 million in penalties for the first time in the league’s salary cap era, according to data tracked by CapFriendly and confirmed by Daily Faceoff.
Some of those overages were planned, as a way to kick the can down the road in an already tight cap situation, like the Edmonton Oilers signing Connor Brown and Corey Perry to bonus-laden contracts. Projecting that the $1.1 billion pandemic debt would be paid off, the Oilers essentially ‘pre-spent’ their increase this season.
Other teams had younger players hit entry-level performance bonuses that resulted in spillage. The penalty is even more painful for a non-playoff team like the Minnesota Wild, who are already carrying $14.7 million in other dead space into next season. Minnesota could have traded away salary at the deadline if they were projecting an overage.
There were some close calls for bonuses. Ottawa’s Jake Sanderson missed a fifth bonus of $212,500 this season by one measly point. His contract called for 0.49 points per game or better, and he finished with 0.481. New York Rangers forward Will Cuylle needed one more game for an $82,500 games played bonus. And Los Angeles Kings breakout star Quinton Byfield nailed his goals (20) and assists (35) bonuses squarely on the head.
Bonus overages are a machination in the Collective Bargaining Agreement that allows for teams to reward certain players – those on entry-level contracts, those signing over 35 years of age, and those coming off significant injury – with attainable performance-based bonuses. They do not apply to the cap at the time they are signed, but only once they are attained. If a team finishes the season with salary cap space, the bonuses attained are subtracted from that excess cushion. If a team finishes with zero cap space, it is applied as a carryover bonus overage to the following season.
Carryover bonus overages are critical calculations because they effectively reduce the amount that penalized teams can spend the following season. The salary cap ceiling is projected to increase five percent this season from $83.5 million to $87.7 million, as called for in the Memorandum of Understanding.
Thanks to our friends at CapFriendly, who did the hard work digging into contract details and crunching the numbers, here are the 13 teams impacted for the 2024-25 season:
Potential additions:
* Edmonton’s Corey Perry can earn an additional $50,000 each for advancing to Conference Final and Stanley Cup Final.
* New York’s Jonathan Quick can earn an additional $25,000 if the Rangers win the Stanley Cup.
* Minnesota’s Marco Rossi can earn an additional $212,500 for being voted to the All-Rookie team.
* Boston’s Milan Lucic can earn an additional $200,000 if the Bruins win the Stanley Cup.
** Florida’s Kyle Okposo can earn an additional $500,000 if the Panthers win the Stanley Cup.
*** Carolina’s Jackson Blake can earn an additional $57,500 if he plays in a total of 20 games this season including the Stanley Cup playoffs. The Canes finished this season with $7,050 in cap space.
**** (Neither Carolina nor Florida will have an overage penalty if those things do not come to fruition.)
With reductions from carryover bonus overage penalties, buyouts, termination penalties, as well as retained salary transactions, many teams will be entering next season with less than the projected $87.7 million salary cap ceiling to spend.
It’s important to note that none of the overages or ‘dead cap space’ can be traded. Here is the breakdown with data from CapFriendly with a projected new upper limit of $87.7 million:
TeamEffective SpaceAnaheim Ducks$87,700,000Boston Bruins$86,316,666Buffalo Sabres$87,700,000Calgary Flames$87,700,000Carolina Hurricanes$87,700,000Chicago Blackhawks$84,533,333Colorado Avalanche$87,700,000Columbus Blue Jackets$86,808,333Dallas Stars$85,062,500Detroit Red Wings$86,111,110Edmonton Oilers$82,333,333Florida Panthers$86,458,333Los Angeles Kings$83,125,000Minnesota Wild$72,571,312Montréal Canadiens$82,423,750Nashville Predators$75,894,444New Jersey Devils$85,911,103New York Islanders$87,700,000New York Rangers$87,187,500Ottawa Senators$87,475,000*Philadelphia Flyers$82,216,905Pittsburgh Penguins$85,220,833San Jose Sharks$80,425,833Seattle Kraken$87,700,000St. Louis Blues$87,700,000Tampa Bay Lightning$87,700,000Toronto Maple Leafs$87,700,000Utah Hockey Club$85,446,666Vancouver Canucks$85,353,333Vegas Golden Knights$87,700,000Washington Capitals$81,760,000Winnipeg Jets$84,950,000* The Ottawa Senators have a unique salary cap credit of $625,000 from the buyout of Colin White that will make whole a large portion of their overage from Sanderson’s $825,000 earned bonus.
The Toronto Maple Leafs hold the record for the largest salary cap carryover overage penalty of $5,370,000 heading into the 2017-18 season. The Boston Bruins carried more than $4.5 million into this season.
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Originally posted on Daily Faceoff
Published: 7 months ago
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