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Which teams are best positioned going forward with the salary cap about to explode?

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The teams that are best positioned for this are the big market teams. The cap expanding like this is going to be challenging at some point for small to mid market teams, unfortunately.
 
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LPHabsFan said:
Because for all the data about what things "could be", what it is, is not a strong hockey market that the owner prefers to use as a loss leader and there's more data to suggest relocating them than keeping them there for the bottom line of the NHL.
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We’ll beat your ass the next 10 years still so enjoy the ride! Thanks for paying our bills!
 
Curufinwe said:
I’d start dialing back those expected cap rises which were based on revenue projections that didn’t account for the world’s stupidest ever trade war.
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Yeah I agree with this. There's sports bubble economics and then the real world outside those rosy projections.
 
Hypothetical, of course, but how does the NHL handle a situation where the work visas of all Canadian citizens living in the US are suddenly revoked?
 
tarheelhockey said:
It seems like you’re conflating “spend to the cap” with “sign horrible contracts”.

I’m pretty sure any team in the NHL would spend to a $105M cap if they were in a contention window. Sure they might take a step back and not sign a bunch of pointless veterans to bloated contracts during a rebuild, but that’s hardly because they can’t. Chicago for example is holding back some cap flexibility, but not because they can’t afford it.
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Yeah but we’re talking about a 20% increase over 3 years, there’s not a lot of teams that can eat 20% increase in ticket, parking, concession prices and still sell out every night. And that’s just the raw cap, not accounting for front loaded bonus payouts for the new 14+ mil contracts that are going to become a norm. I don’t think the change hurts Carolina much if at all and I’m sure ownership would contemplate a season or two of spending at the new upper limit with rentals but the longterm max contracts for impact players are still going to be a top 1/3rd market imo.

If the increase was spread out over 5-10 years it’s a different story but 20mil in additional spending over 3 years, and realistically 30-50mil in actual cash on July 1st spending isn’t going to be absorbed equally across the league.
 
The Nuge said:
Completely disagree. Florida and Ottawa are too small of market. They might struggle to spend to the cap. The Panthers made it to the Cup finals and were still 6th last in revenue in 2023. If their revenue doesn’t see a big jump, it might be tough to spend ~113 million on salaries when your total revenue is ~160 million.
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Panthers are top 10 in revenues now. They sell out every game and have played the most playoff games of any team the last 2 years.
 
Not sure if it’s been mentioned, but suddenly contenders are going to have cap space. One wonders if the offersheet world will unfreeze for a couple of seasons. Or at least attempts.
 
Realistically, there are numerous teams several years into "Rebuilds" that are all in good shape.

Hell, just in the Atlantic you have:

Buffalo:

Dahlin - $11M through 31-32.
Power - $8.35M through 30-31.
Tage - $7.14M through 29-30.
Cozens - $7.1M through 29-30.

Detroit:

Larkin - $8.7M through 30-31.
Seider - $8.55M through 30-31.
Raymond - $8.05M through 31-32.

Montreal:

Suzuki - $7.875M through 29-30.
Caufield - $7.85M through 30-31.
Slaf - $7.6M through 32-33.

Ottawa:

Stutzle - $8.35M until 30-31.
Sanderson - $8.05M until 31-32.
Norris - $7.95M until 29-30.

Yeah, you can argue a couple of those either aren't being lived up to (Norris) or haven't been proven yet (Cozens/Slaf) but at this rate $8M is gonna be $6M by 27-28. Literally. $8M contracts signed under an $83.5M cap deflate to $5.88M under $113.5 cap.
 
chaz4hockey said:
Will they spend to a high cap though?
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a quote from Chevy “We’ve been preparing for that,” he said. “This isn’t like, ‘What just happened here?’ … We know we’ve got our challenges. Like any team, you’ve got your set of realities. But our ownership group has been all in to try to win since they took the team over, and I don’t anticipate that’s going to change.”
 
The hardest part to building a winning team is locking up a core of superstars and stars to build a team around, so any team that has a young or moderately aged core locked up long term is in the best situation right now. I agree with those who say Florida, they are the defending champions, and only have a couple of guys they have to re-sign or replace in the next few years, and they are in a destination that most people will want to play in, as long as the team is playing well. I like what Colorado has moving forward, with McKinnon and Makar locked up long term, and trading away Rantanen for a player that will be more economical moving forward could prove to be a shrewd move. I like Winnipeg, Carolina and New Jersey's situations as well. They aren't overburdened with cap and could use the growing cap space to really bolster their rosters.

I've seen Edmonton mentioned, and I have concerns, because McDavid I don't expect McDavid to take a discount to stay in Edmonton, so he will end up with a huge pay day. Bouchard is a problematic one moving forward as well, as his offensive numbers could demand a huge salary as well, but his consistency has taken a bit of a hit. So I won't say that Edmonton is sitting in a really good spot unless they can lock up Bouchard to a reasonable deal or trade him for a good return, and more importantly get McDavid locked up for another 8 years.
 
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KJ Dangler said:
Laughable Columbus isn’t being consistently named .. it’s ok guys we will keep our head down , work hard until we can’t be ignored
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The only reason I'm not including teams with tons of cap space like Columbus and Anaheim, are that the hardest part of building a championship team is finding the star players to build around. Both teams have some great young talent coming up, but we still don't know if these are the type of guys you can build a winner around. If those teams develop their young players into a championship caliber core, they absolutely are in a great position moving forward, but we've seen far too many teams with young, affordable star players not be able to get out of the "rebuild" phase and into "contender" phase.
 
ManofSteel55 said:
The hardest part to building a winning team is locking up a core of superstars and stars to build a team around, so any team that has a young or moderately aged core locked up long term is in the best situation right now. I agree with those who say Florida, they are the defending champions, and only have a couple of guys they have to re-sign or replace in the next few years, and they are in a destination that most people will want to play in, as long as the team is playing well. I like what Colorado has moving forward, with McKinnon and Makar locked up long term, and trading away Rantanen for a player that will be more economical moving forward could prove to be a shrewd move. I like Winnipeg, Carolina and New Jersey's situations as well. They aren't overburdened with cap and could use the growing cap space to really bolster their rosters.

I've seen Edmonton mentioned, and I have concerns, because McDavid I don't expect McDavid to take a discount to stay in Edmonton, so he will end up with a huge pay day. Bouchard is a problematic one moving forward as well, as his offensive numbers could demand a huge salary as well, but his consistency has taken a bit of a hit. So I won't say that Edmonton is sitting in a really good spot unless they can lock up Bouchard to a reasonable deal or trade him for a good return, and more importantly get McDavid locked up for another 8 years.
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Makar isn’t locked up long term, has 2 years left, so will need a new deal when cap hits $113 million.
 
Dread Clawz said:
Panthers are top 10 in revenues now. They sell out every game and have played the most playoff games of any team the last 2 years.
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And i'm happy as hell for them . How many years of crap attendance did they have while Tampa was thriving . Hope they have now set a foundation of fans for when things go down hill eventually which happens to all teams .

Great to see .
 
The teams in the best position are teams with ownership that are willing to spend to the cap. There are tons of small market teams who will struggle to break even with the cap floor rising so high. I dont see there being more than 10-12 teams who cap out in 3 years. There are more teams operating on an internal budget than fans realize at a glance.
 
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Zirakzigil said:
The teams in the best position are teams with ownership that are willing to spend to the cap. There are tons of small market teams who will struggle to break even with the cap floor rising so high. I dont see there being more than 10-12 teams who cap out in 3 years. There are more teams operating on an internal budget than fans realize at a glance.
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With how Canadas going to be impacted thru Tariffs ( might not be a long term issue as Mexico already caved today ) but also the Canadian dollar being so weak in comparison to the US dollar , you can bet that revenue sharing is going to be changed going forward . The league may be generating more money , but in general the economies / inflation make it harder for teams to raise pricing without pushing fans away . By no means am I trying to make this a political post , but market conditions and changing landscapes surely have to be accounted for is all I’m saying ..
 
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