The rise of the salary cap changes everything in the NHL.
On Jan. 31, the league and the NHLPA announced an agreement to create "increased predictability" about the salary cap over the next three seasons, provided there's a new collective bargaining agreement beyond the 2025-26 season. The upper limits for the cap are projected as:
2025-26: $95.5 million
2026-27: $104 million
2027-28: $113.5 million
It's a shrewd negotiating tactic, giving the players a sense of the league's prosperity and their own future earning potential under a skyrocketing cap. But it also materially changed how teams could approach the March 7 NHL trade deadline.
"I think this is going to be an interesting deadline. Everybody's like, 'We're going to have money next year.' So I wonder if you might see some actual contracts move," one NHL team executive said. "I think teams might be looking at free agency this summer and wondering what they're actually going to get out of it. So maybe they're willing to trade for Seth Jones or something at the deadline."
With that salary cap bump on the horizon, here's a look at the players who could move before the NHL trade deadline on March 7 at 3 p.m. ET, from the shocking possibilities to the pending free agents to the players with low-cost contracts who could be the difference in winning the Stanley Cup.
This list was compiled through conversations with league executives and other sources, as well as media reports. ESPN insiders Kevin Weekes and Emily Kaplan added their input in its creation. Salary figures are from PuckPedia.
Let's begin with the biggest names.
