NHL President gave a state of the NHL press briefing and the big headline when it comes to the New York Rangers is that the salary cap will go up next season by a whole $1 million. Hey, anything helps, but it was accompanied by some bad news. Bettman said that the players still have to pay off their escrow debt and that won’t be done until after the 2023-24 season. That means the most the cap will go up over the next two years is $1 million per year.
The escrow debt is the money the players own the owners for getting paid during the COVID-19 pandemic. The NHL owners and players are in a revenue sharing relationship and because the players still t got paid when games were not paid, they owe the owners money.
The best news is that hockey revenues are expected to hit $5.2 billion, more than they had projected. If it keeps rising, that will allow for the annual incremental increase in the cap through the 2023-24 season.
What it means for the Rangers
Any increase in the cap helps the Rangers next season when huge increases kick in for Adam Fox and Mika Zibanejad. Some key players will be looking for new deals and there is an estimated $10.6 million in cap space to work with.
Still, one million dollars is a drop in the bucket when it comes to the Rangers’ budget so don’t see this as the windfall that will allow them to re-sign Ryan Strome.
One interesting factor is that is makes two-year bridge deals for RFA’s like Kaapo Kakko a more attractive option. Rather than seek a long term, big money deal now, Kakko can sign for two years and then be looking for a new contract in 2024-25 when the cap is expected to increase substantially. The hope has to be that salaries will return to the levels they reached pre-pandemic.
The fact that revenues are booming for the NHL is a good thing and the more money they make, the sooner the salary cap financial shackles will be unlocked. That is good news for the Rangers who have Kakko, Vitali Kravtsov, K’Andre Miller, Alexis Lafreniere, Julien Gauthier, Sammy Blais along with prospects like Morgan Barron, all hitting restricted free agency in the next two years.
A willingness for any of them to sign a bridge deal to get to 20024-25 will help.