It’s the day of the NHL‘s Stanley Cup Finals and the league took this opportunity to make an exciting league news announcement. It was announced today that the NHL’s salary cap for the 2024-25 season will be $88 million. This is a little higher than the previously speculated number of $87.7 million.
Hearing #NHL salary cap upper limit next season will be $88 million – a slight rise from the $87.7 million figure called for in the CBA’s MOU.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) June 8, 2024
The 2024-25 NHL Salary Cap Will Be $88 Million
The salary cap will go up to $88 million in 2024-25. We may recall the salary cap only made its debut in the NHL for the 2005-06 season. Furthermore, that season the cap was at $39 million. As you can imagine, the salary cap being that low caused the top players’ salaries to drop. You might laugh when you realize who’s salary we can analyze, Jaromir Jagr. In 2005-06, Jagr scored 123 points and made $8.36 million. In contrast, in 2003-04, Jagr made $11 million and totaled 74 points. Jagr was the highest paid NHLer both of those seasons.
Fast forward to today, and the salary cap has increased to $88 million. Since its inception, the NHL salary cap has had one decrease, and one period of being frozen. The decrease was caused by the 2012-13 lockout. Moreover, the cap being frozen was caused by none other than the notorious COVID-19 pandemic. From the 2019-20 season to the 2021-22 campaign, the cap stayed at $81.5 million.
Any More News on the NHL Salary Cap
Now some more interesting facts about just the cap itself. No player was able to earn as much as Jagr did in 2003-04 until the salary cap hit such a mark that 20% of it was $11 million. Hence, when the cap passed $55 million in 2008-09, its fourth season of existence, it crossed that threshold, and NHL players could once again earn pre-salary cap salaries. However, it didn’t actually happen until Brad Richards made $12 million for the 2011-12 season.
Salaries that have ever exceeded that amount are still fairly rare. The reporting on highest-earning seasons for NHLers has a few conflicting reports. For example, Joe Sakic earned $17 million in 1997-98 according to capfriendly. Sergei Fedorov perhaps had the greatest reported salary, but it is strange to see it so high. Mitch Marner may also be the highest ever at $16 million in 2019-20.
Main photo: Terrence Lee-USA TODAY Sports
