As you already know, the NHL and NHLPA agreed to beef up the league’s salary cap over the next three seasons, and it’s going up by a large margin. Currently set to $88 million, the 2025-26 season will see the cap increase to $95.5 million, before it jumps two more times between 2026-27 and 2027-28.
Come July 2026, the cap will hit the century mark and break through the $100 million barrier to $104 million. Once the 2027-28 season rolls around, you’ll see it plateau at $113.5 million. No, it’s not exponential or anything like that, but still, that’s one heck of an increase.
And for the Detroit Red Wings, it couldn’t come at a better time. Some teams are in rebuilding mode and others are looking to maintain a core, and the cap boost will help them, no doubt, starting this offseason.
For the Wings, they’re still building the core and trying to sign them all to long-term deals. So yeah, the timing for this increase is impeccable. And you know the adage I’m about to paraphrase; “timing and circumstance are factors of success.”
Detroit Red Wings will benefit from the increased cap in 2025-26 and beyond
Between now and 2027-28, players like Alex DeBrincat, Carter Mazur, Marco Kasper, and Simon Edvinsson will all be free agents. Also, Elmer Soderblom and Albert Johansson, two potential core players, are restricted free agents this year and could earn larger contracts if and when they (and maybe Jonatan Berggren) sign a ‘bridge deal’ this summer.
This means they’ll probably sign a new deal during or shortly after the 2027-28 season. As for DeBrincat and Kasper, the goal should be simple: Make them Red Wings for the next seven years once they’re eligible to negotiate new deals.
This salary cap boost will better guarantee Kasper, DeBrincat, and all of the players mentioned earlier will stick around Hockeytown on new, and more luxurious deals. It also means Steve Yzerman could land one more big-time player or two in free agency, or acquire them in a trade, and maybe still have cap space left over.
Cap increases mean the Red Wings can more than keep their core
Sure, we should always anticipate player movement, and just because there’s a cap increase going on, it doesn’t mean the Red Wings core won’t change. Trades happen, players want out, and new opportunities rise up if another team is shopping a star.
But this salary cap increase heightens the chances that the Wings will keep their core intact and ready to roll during the second half of the decade and into the 2030s. For Red Wings fans everywhere, this should be awesome news, as the timing couldn’t be better.
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