TSN: Pierre LeBrun on with the salary cap going up, it’s going to be an interesting offseason with free agency and potential trades.
** NHLRumors.com transcription
Gino Reda: “Can we see a lot of aggression right across the board, though? I mean, Pierre, we’ve seen about one and a half percent increase in the cap over the last six years since COVID.
Now we’re going to see a 25% increase over the next three years. At least that’s the projection right now. Are we going to see free agency go crazy? The general managers meeting here in Palm Beach, Florida. Are conversations already beginning about where they could be headed? Where they could be spending huge sums of money and potentially a lot of player movement?
LeBrun: “Yeah, no question. And you know, a lot of trades didn’t happen before March 7th, that those conversations can now pick up again in the offseason. So that’s the other part of this. You’ll hear about some deals this offseason where the two teams are going to say, we started talking about that during the season, but decided to put things on hold. So that’s for sure.
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And there’s a potential for fireworks this summer. I mean, A) the salary cap is going up, which is going to give flexibility to a lot of teams. But go around the league. What happens with Marner in Toronto, if the Leafs can’t sign Marner now they have cap room. How do they react? Who do they go after?
The Edmonton Oilers obviously hope to extend the superstar Connor McDavid. I think all things being equal, that probably happens. But what if it doesn’t? And what kind of fireworks comes out of that?
The list goes on and on, between the salary cap going up and a number of situations around the league with high profile players. I think this could be one of the more exciting offseason the long time in the NHL.
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