Big money is coming to the NHL just as expected, but the league’s escalating salary cap will nonetheless prompt major changes across hockey.
The league and the NHL Players Association said that the upper end of the salary cap for the 2026–27 season will be a record $104 million per team, while the minimum will be $76.9 million and the midpoint for next season stands at $90.4 million.
That upper limit is an increase of $8.5 million—around 9%—from the $95.5 million salary cap for the current NHL season, beating the $7.5 million year-over-year rise from 2024–25. Notably, next season’s minimum spending per team is greater than the maximum from as recently as 2018.
The figures for the 2026–27 campaign, meanwhile, are right in line with multiyear projections first detailed early last year. Nonetheless, they confirm the still-growing revenue outlook for the NHL and the overall health of the sport.
In addition to total league revenue that will again likely exceed $7 billion in mixed currency this season, the NHL just completed a first round of the postseason that set viewership milestones in the current U.S. rights deals with ESPN and TNT Sports.
“It’s a really good time, and we don’t even have the biggest markets [involved in the playoffs],” league commissioner Gary Bettman said in an appearance on The Pat McAfee Show. “This is about how good the hockey is.”
Future Spending
The salary cap for the next season also sets an individual player maximum of $20.8 million. Currently, the highest-paid player is set to be Wild forward Kirill Kaprizov, who will earn $17 million as part of a record-setting, $136 million contract spanning eight years and beginning with the 2026–27 campaign.
While Kaprizov’s figure isn’t necessarily set to be surpassed, at least right away, team GMs will be active in a fertile free-agent class that includes stars such as Panthers goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, Sabres forward Alex Tuch, Penguins veteran Evgeni Malkin, and should he elect not to retire, Capitals icon Alex Ovechkin.
The current projection for the 2027–28 NHL salary cap already points to an even-bigger increase, and is set to jump another $9.5 million to $113.5 million.
Similarly, the NFL escalated its salary cap for the 2026 season, and that figure will reach $301.2 million.
