Report: NHL salary cap could potentially reach $92 million by 2025–26

The Vancouver Canucks might be on the verge of receiving a little bit of financial flexibility.

Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman and Rory Boylen reported Tuesday the National Hockey League has begun to prepare its teams for the possibility of the salary cap rising significantly over the next three seasons.

According to the Sportsnet report, the salary cap could take a small leap forward to $83.5 million in the 2023–24 season. The upper limit already jumped to $82.5 million in 2022–23, the first increase in three seasons.

After 2023–24, the salary cap could begin to increase by massive amounts. Friedman and Boylen estimated the upper limit as potentially being between $87.5 and $88 million in 2024–25 before spiking to approximately $92 million in 2025–26.

The Canucks are going to need the extra room. With J.T. Miller’s new deal set to kick in next year and Elias Pettersson, Bo Horvat, Nils Höglander, Vasily Podkolzin, and potentially Andrei Kuzmenko soon in need of new contracts, the Canucks are in a position to be handing out plenty of significant raises in short order.

According to CapFriendly, the Canucks are currently projected to exceed the salary cap by more than $2.75 million in the 2022–23 season, although they’ll be able to remain financially compliant by using long-term injured reserve to exceed the upper limit.

Miller’s raise from a $5.25 million AAV to $8 million next year will largely be offset by Micheal Ferland’s $3.5 million coming off the books. The next major piece of business for Patrik Allvin and Jim Rutherford to attend to will be figuring out how big Horvat’s raise will be from his current $5.5 million salary.

After that, Pettersson will be in line for a raise from his $7.35 million cap hit in the summer of 2024. At that point, the 2017 first-round pick will be a 25-year-old restricted free agent with arbitration rights. He’ll certainly be in line for a bump upward.