The NHL and NHLPA have reached an agreement to accelerate the implementation of a salary cap for the playoffs and modifications to the long-term injury reserve rules for the 2025-26 season. This measure is part of the changes included in the league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), the start of which is anticipated for this season. The current CBA ends on September 15, 2026, while the new agreement, announced in July, will be valid for four years. NHL general managers will be briefed on CBA rules for this season during meetings to be held in Detroit this week. The regulations on the salary cap for the playoffs address a persistent concern among some players and general managers: the use of long-term injury reserve (LTIR) rules by teams to form rosters that would exceed the upper salary limit during the regular season. Previously, there was no salary cap in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which allowed teams to re-incorporate players who were on LTIR at the end of the regular season for the first playoff game, after having used their available salary space to add more talent at the trade deadline.
The salary cap compliance will only apply to players participating in a specific postseason game. An NHL player agent explained:I think overall it’s a good thing because it’s a competitive advantage. That’s how most people view it, especially if you can use it the right way.
Nazem Kadri, center for the Calgary Flames
At 3 p.m. local time or five hours before a playoff game, whichever comes first, teams must submit a list of 18 players and two goalies to the NHL Central Registry. A “playoff roster average club salary” will be calculated for that list, which must be below the team’s salary cap “upper limit.” The “average club salary” is the sum of the average amounts of the player’s salary and bonuses for that season for each player on the list, and all amounts charged to the team’s salary cap. Along with this postseason salary cap, the NHL and NHLPA have agreed to accelerate 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 cannot exceed the total amount of 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 prior season’s league average salary”. There is an exception to the changes in the LTIR rules: 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 are being accelerated for the 2025-26 season include: The ban on deferred compensation in player contracts, which will take effect on October 7. The implementation of the remaining CBA changes will be gradual over the next year, including an increase in the minimum salary of players next March. Other significant rule changes, such as the variation in contract value and term limits in contracts, will come into effect after the entire CBA comes into effect on September 16, 2026. The NHL’s shift to an 84-game regular season will also be implemented in 2026-27.You can have $130 million in salaries on your total roster once the playoffs begin, but the 18 players and the two goalkeepers who are on the field must comply with the salary cap.
