The season is finished for most teams. Organizational meetings and exit interviews have taken place. The eliminated teams have an eye on the 2016 draft and free agency to improve their roster for next season.
The salary cap for next season is thought to be approximately $71.4 million, and could jump up to $74 million if the players use the salary escalator. When looking at each team’s cap situation for next season and 2017-18, the numbers are based of a $74 million cap ceiling.
The Anaheim Ducks work off an internal budget and may not be able to re-sign all of their RFAs this year and may be forced to trade one of them.
The Arizona Coyotes are a budget team and likely won’t come close to the salary cap ceiling. They have almost $40 million in cap space with 13 players under contract.
The Calgary Flames have a couple of big RFAs in Johnny Gaudreau and Sean Monahan that will take up a nice chuck of their $25 million in total cap space.
The Edmonton Oilers have over $14 million in cap space for next season and will be looking to improve their blueline.
The Los Angeles Kings want to re-sign Milan Lucic and need to add to their blueline, but only have around $8 million in cap space.
The San Jose Sharks don’t have any major free agents this offseason. They currently only have eight players under contract for 2017-18, taking up over $34 million in cap space.
The Vancouver Canucks are rebuilding on the fly. They already have 20 contracts for next season, but have almost $15 million on cap space.
Below is a closer look at each team in the Pacific Division – what their salary cap situation is like for the 2016-17 and 2017-18 seasons, as well as their pending unrestricted and restricted free agents.
** We’ll update the salary cap numbers when free agents are signed or trades are made. Salary info taken from CapFriendly.com **
