TSN 1050: Darren Dreger on TSN 1050 1st Up on some agents wanting to get some future salary cap news from the NHL and NHLPA before they get their clients, who are pending free agents, to sign to contract extensions.
** Updated announcement this morning – Elliotte Friedman: Salary cap for the next three years
2025-26: $95.5 million
2026-27: $104 million
2027-28: $113.5 million
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Carlo : “So Dregs, do you think with a Rantanen and Marner situation, where those are the two big names that could potentially reset the player’s salary market? Do you think they think there’s more of a patience in their end to allow things like, we hear stuff about a new CBA, we hear stuff about what the salary cap is going to look like.”
Dreger: “Yeah. Yeah.”
Coliacovo: “Do you think there’s more patience on their end to let all that stuff play out first before going in? Because the agent advice could be, ‘Hey, man, if the market gets $10 million into it. You’re going to get more money.”
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Dreger: “Yeah, and that’s a big thing, Carlo. And, you know, I’m sure that the teams are frustrated by a bit of a delay, if you want to call it that. But then again, I always want to put myself in, in the position of being a pending unrestricted free agent or representing one of those coveted players, right?
I mean, literally, that’s your job is to take a real educated drive at what the open market is going to command. And in this case, there’s, there’s wild uncertainty, because what if that salary cap plans higher than expected? And then in that new CBA, you know, there is supposed to be something called cap guidance for a couple of years I believe. That’ll be part of the announcement.
So all of a sudden now, if you’re a top end player, and you lock in an eight-year maximum, you know, is it splitting hairs if you know you, you’ve commanded $100 plus-million contract, and you leave $10, $15 million on the table. Well, it could be. It would be if I were the guy making that call, and I was a player that was on the short end of that stick. But that’s where the tricky balance comes in.
And this is where gut feel and just general heart has to be injected into the process as well. If you feel like you can win and you can protect, potentially become a part of legendary status in NHL history, and maybe one day there’s a statue of you outside of that building. What, what’s the worst of that like? How much can you, like that’s where the balance has to come into play.
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But to answer your question, Carlo, yes, that’s what a number of the player agents are waiting for. They want a better handle, a better read on exactly what the cap is going to be and what sort of back and forth there was. Because it isn’t that long ago where there was this perception of maybe the League and the Players Association could have an extension in the CBA done and announced before the start of the playoffs. That feels a good stretch right now, but maybe the player agents who are well connected to Marty Walsh in his office have a pretty good read on the direction that that part of the CBA is going to go, and maybe that’s what they’re waiting for.”
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