7 NHL Teams Facing Salary Cap Trouble This Summer

As the NHL deals with a salary cap that is increasing by only a million dollars after a couple of seasons affected by COVID-19, some NHL teams are in tight financial situations, trying to make moves while staying under the salary cap.

While there are teams that have the cap space to make some moves this summer, there are lots of teams that will be limited in which players they can acquire, but there are also some teams that will actively need to shed salaries because they are jammed up against the cap.

Most NHL teams are still in a position in which they can make a significant move or two in the offseason, and that includes some of the teams on this list, but for these teams, adding players is likely going to require some creativity and possibly other moves to improve the cap situation.

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Here is a look at seven teams that are tight against the salary cap heading into the offseason:

Salary cap information comes from the always amazing Cap Friendly.

Vegas Golden Knights

Coming off a season in which they missed the playoffs and fired their head coach, the Golden Knights still have some work to do this summer when it comes to managing their roster.

According to Cap Friendly, Vegas is already $2.6 million over the salary cap and they have 16 players signed. That does not include right winger Reilly Smith, an unrestricted free agent who could be signed to an extension if Vegas has the room to do it, and it does include Shea Weber, who is unlikely to play again and will be headed to LTIR.

As a result, there are lots of names in play for Vegas: Max Pacioretty, William Karlsson, Alec Martinez, Nic Hague, and Laurent Brossoit are some possibilities, but the bottom line is that they are not in position to be adding players. Last season’s Jack Eichel trade will have to suffice.

Tampa Bay Lightning

After losing in the Stanley Cup Final, following back-to-back championships, the Lightning have already traded defenseman Ryan McDonagh to Nashville and remain $933,000 over the cap with 20 players signed.

This is a perennial issue for the Lightning – it’s a difficult existence when your team has too many good players – but they might finally need to move veteran winger Alex Killorn, too. Tampa Bay reportedly wants to keep free agent winger Ondrej Palat but, under these circumstances, that could be tough.

As tight as the cap situation is for Tampa Bay, they still managed to sign Nick Paul to a seven-year deal for more than $22 million, which did not ease their cap crunch at all.

Florida Panthers

After finishing in first place overall during the 2021-2022 season, the Panthers were disappointed by a second-round playoff exit, especially when it was a sweep at the hands of their in-state rivals, the Lightning.

Florida still boasts a strong roster, but they have just $3 million in cap space with 17 players signed. Anthony Duclair will start the season on LTIR after suffering an Achilles injury, but the Panthers might need to make a more significant deal. They have been rumored to be shopping goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, with salary retained, and veteran winger Patric Hornqvist is a prime candidate for a trade or buyout.

Minnesota Wild

The Wild have 19 players signed and just $3 million in cap space, so they can put together a roster, but they are not in great position to make significant additions.

This is not unexpected, either. When the Wild bought out Zach Parise and Ryan Suter last summer, that left significant dead money on the Minnesota cap - $12.7 million next season and more than $14 million in the two seasons after that – and so Minnesota can return most of last year’s playoff team, but it starts to get complicated if they intend to bring back goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who will have options as a free agent.

Boston Bruins

At the start of next season, the Bruins are looking at having several significant players on LTIR. Brad Marchand, Charlie McAvoy, and Matt Grzelcyk will be out of the lineup, so that leaves a little flexibility, but Boston has about $2 million in cap space with 22 players signed.

The Bruins would presumably like to get Patrice Bergeron and possibly even David Krejci back for one more crack at it but to make that happen, even on team-friendly deals, the Bruins might need to explore some trade or buyout scenarios for the likes of Nick Foligno, Craig Smith, and Mike Reilly.

Edmonton Oilers

The Oilers have just $7 million in cap space with 15 players signed and that is not the end of the world, but it does leave Edmonton in a tight spot financially.

Even if Mike Smith returns, the Oilers still need another goaltender and, by all indications, they probably want to keep Evander Kane. That won’t come cheaply, given his production alongside Connor McDavid last season so that means that the Oilers are going to have to do some maneuvering around the cap. That could mean trading right winger Jesse Puljujarvi and/or defenseman Tyson Barrie. Edmonton could also buyout right winger Zack Kassian, too.

There are ways for the Oilers to get out of this tight squeeze, but there is not likely to be a bunch of excess cap space lying around at the end of it.

Calgary Flames

The Flames are in a tight salary cap space for only as long as they hope to keep Johnny Gaudreau and Matthew Tkachuk, just two-thirds of their top line from last season.

Calgary has nearly $27 million in cap space with just 12 players signed, but the fallout from the Gaudreau and Tkachuk contract situations will play a huge part in what the Flames can do in the offseason.

If they manage to keep both, the Flames may have to deal out some established players just to fit everyone under the cap, but if one or both leave, then the Flames could become spenders because they would have some major holes to fill and the cap space to do it.Make sure to keep an eye on our Live Odds page throughout the week to get the best lines possible and connect with others in the SBR community on our popular sports betting forum