NHL and NHLPA Accelerate Changes to Playoff Salary Cap and Injury Reserve Rules
The NHL and NHLPA have agreed to streamline the implementation of a salary cap for the playoffs and modifications to the long-term injury reserve rules for the 2025-26 season. These measures, which are part of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), seek to adjust the league’s competitive landscape. The current CBA ends on September 15, 2026. The new agreement, announced in July, will last for four years. NHL general managers will be briefed on the CBA rules for this season during their meetings in Detroit this week. The playoff salary cap rules address an ongoing concern: the use of long-term injury reserve (LTIR) rules by some teams to field rosters that would exceed the salary cap in the regular season.Previously, there was no salary cap in the Stanley Cup playoffs, allowing teams to bring back players who were on LTIR at the end of the regular season. Compliance with the salary cap will only apply to players participating in a postseason game. Teams must submit a list of 18 players and two goalies to the NHL Central Registry before each playoff game. A “club average salary in the playoff game roster” will be calculated for that list, which must be below the team’s salary cap “upper limit.” The “club average salary” is the sum of the average amounts of the player’s salary and bonuses for that season for each player on the list. Along with the postseason salary cap, the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to streamline changes to the long-term injury reserve rules for the 2025-26 season. The total salary and bonuses of “a player or players” who have replaced a player on LTIR may not exceed the amount of the total salary and bonuses of the player they are replacing. The new LTIR rule also states that “the average amounts of such replacement players cannot exceed the previous season’s league average salary.” There is an exception to the LTIR rule changes: teams can exceed these “average amounts”, but the injured player would not be eligible to return that season or in the postseason. That exception needs approval from both the NHL and the NHLPA. Other CBA changes that will be accelerated for the 2025-26 season include:I think, in general, it’s a good thing because it’s a competitive advantage. That’s how most people see it, especially if you can use it the right way.
Nazem Kadri, center for the Calgary Flames
- Ban on deferred compensation in player contracts, effective October 7.
- Relaxation of player dress codes.
- The ability of players to promote “wines and spirits”.
- Ban on “double salary holding” in trades.
