NHL Player Agent Allan Walsh States the Salary Cap Will Be $97 Million – The Hockey Writers NHL News Latest News, Analysis & More

In the latest episode of Agent Provocateur, a podcast hosted by SDPN, NHL agent Allan Walsh reported that the NHL’s salary cap will have an upper limit of $97 million for the 2025-26 season.

Walsh is an NHL player agent and social media star. He has stated unequivocally that the salary cap in the NHL next season will be $97 million. There has been no confirmation from the league or other insiders that this figure is accurate, but Walsh is pretty well-connected. With representation of some major names in the NHL, including Jonathan Huberdeau, David Perron, Filip Hronek, and other big-ticket players, Walsh can be looked at as a credible source.

“You heard it from me. I am telling you right now, you can write it down. I am not divulging any confidences here, I am not divulging any inside information per say, I am telling you right now the upper limit of the salary cap next year will be $97 million”

from Allan Walsh, NHL Agent via Agent Provocateur

The NHL’s salary cap was limited to $81.5 million for a number of years as the NHL’s revenue was cut significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the salary cap has risen to $88 million for the 2024-25 season. Typically, the salary cap is limited to a five percent jump year-over-year. So with the $88 million salary cap limit for this season, the expected total was to be close to $92.5 million. There have been rumors that the salary cap could be heading as high as $110 million in two years, but nothing concrete has been reported on that, and it likely won’t until the next CBA is negotiated.

The idea is that with such a significant jump potentially coming, it makes more sense for the league and players to agree to split that money up across more than one season. The CBA states that five percent is the maximum increase for the salary cap unless otherwise agreed upon. In this case, for the salary cap to increase to more than $92.5 million, everyone would need to be on board.

Many teams, like the Toronto Maple Leafs, signed some big-ticket contracts that were supposed to age very well and become a much lower percentage of the salary cap. When teams plan for five percent increases, it impacts the contracts they sign at that time, as well as how they predict future contracts to go.

Regardless of what happened in the past, if the salary cap jumps to $97 million as Walsh suggests, the $9 million increase will be significant as teams can get creative with it. They can go for one of the NHL’s best players, as currently, only 34 players make $9 million or more, or they can opt to use that money to bolster their depth with a few strong players in the bottom half of their lineup. This kind of increase can make a big difference to teams.