NHL Streamlines Salary Cap Changes for Playoffs and Injury Reserve Rules
The National Hockey League (NHL) and the NHL Players’ Association (NHLPA) have agreed 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 a series of changes in the league’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which will be brought forward for this season. The current CBA will end on September 15, 2026, and the new agreement, announced in July, will last for four years. NHL general managers will be briefed on the CBA rules for this season at meetings to be held this week in Chicago. The salary cap rules for the playoffs address an ongoing concern for some players and general managers: teams using long-term injury reserve (LTIR) rules to field rosters that would exceed the regular season’s upper salary limit. 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 Game 1 of the playoffs, 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 postseason game. According to an NHL player agent: “You can have $130 million in salaries on your total roster once the playoffs begin, but the 18 players and two goalies on the ice must comply with the salary cap.” 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 the 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 requires the approval of both the NHL and the NHLPA. Other CBA changes that are being accelerated for the 2025-26 season include:I think in general it’s a good thing because it’s a competitive advantage. That is, that’s how most people see it, especially if you can use it the right way.
Nazem Kadri, center for the Calgary Flames
- The ban on deferred compensation in player contracts, which will take effect on October 7.
- The relaxation of player dress codes.
- The ability of players to endorse “wines and spirits”.
- The ban on “double salary retention” in transfers.
