New York Rangers Conference Rivals Set To Be Significantly Impacted By Latest NHL Announcement
Photo credit: Florida Hockey Now
Gary Bettman and the NHL have put the Florida Panthers at a disadvantage for once this year. With the latest news regarding the playoff salary cap this could spell doom for Bill Zito, while Chris Drury spends conservatively and ensures the New York Rangers will not suffer a penalty from the league.
As of Tuesday, it was reported that the NHL has implemented a new playoff salary cap that will go into effect for the 2025-26 season.
That has broad implications for the Rangers and Panthers. The Panthers may suffer the most, as the Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights have found workarounds for the salary cap postseason.
NHL insider Frank Seravalli reported that the NHL and NHLPA agreed to institute the new playoff salary cap format beginning this season. The sides agreed to the new postseason accounting in the memorandum of understanding for the new collective bargaining agreement, set to go in effect prior to the 2026-27 season.
The Rolling Implementation of Parts of the CBA: How it Affects the Rangers and Panthers
With parts of the new CBA set to take place in 2025-26, the playoff salary cap will be one "rolling implementation" Gary Bettman and the NHL will address immediately.
As it looks, this could harm the Panthers' cap management outlook if they fail to address their LTIR situation, which they utilized to pick up Seth Jones and Brad Marchand. This all the while Matthew Tkachuk was injured.
In its simplest terms, this means each team's 20-player lineup for each playoff game must be under the ceiling cap for that particular season. The NHL salary cap in 2025-26 is $95.5 million.
This new rule specifically targets teams that use long term injured reserve (LTIR) to acquire players during the regular season to replace one of their own injured players
This new rule specifically targets teams that use long term injured reserve (LTIR) to acquire players during the regular season to replace one of their own injured players
The Panthers were $5 million over the salary cap after acquiring both players, but since the NHL had no rule, there was no rule to break.
Until now.
Teams will only be allowed to exceed the cap by an amount equal to the prior season's average NHL salary, not the full salary of the player on LTIR - unless the League and union approve the full amount, which will only happen when there is no doubt the player will miss the entire remainder of the season, including the playoffs
For the New York Rangers, this shouldn't be an issue. But for teams like the Vegas Golden Knights, Florida Panthers, and Tampa Bay Lightning, this could be an issue down the road should they find a way to weasel around rules as they've done before.
Previously on NYRangersInsider
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