Weekend FTB: It's going to be a very long weekend

CBA issues of note in this season

First the new CBA MOU stuff. I read through everything but the new HRR process. That is some dry stuff and I might forget to ever go back. There is a lot that's interesting in what I think is a very pro-player document in ways that don't actually impact the running of team much. Players won't like the new contract length: 6 and 7 years instead of 7 and 8, but I don't think they're going to mind so much once they realize how little this will impact most players.

This CBA takes effect on September 16, 2026. Exactly how that's going to effect things that happen before then like contract signings that will take place before that date is not clear yet. There's a lot of time for that clarity to come.

The big news is not the playoff salary cap calculation. That is going to be an issue so rarely for so few teams that we'll start to wonder what the fuss was about. And it won't happen for almost two years. Ignore that for now. There are a few things that will come into play in decisions now.

The minimum salary is going up a lot.

• 2026-27 - $850,000
• 2027-28 - $900,000
• 2028-29 - $950,000
• 2029-30 - $1,000,000

The minimum amount for the coming year is $775,000, and many contracts that extend into the term of the new CBA have salary amounts below the new minimums. The Leafs have several. From This means that existing contracts that include NHL base salary below the new minimums in those seasons will be automatically revised up to comply with the minimum. This will result in an increased cap hit for those players. Until the Transition Rules are released, the assumption is that the Cap Hits of those contracts being adjusted will not be adjusted until the 26-27 season.:

[E]xisting contracts that include NHL base salary below the new minimums in those seasons will be automatically revised up to comply with the minimum. This will result in an increased cap hit for those players. Until the Transition Rules are released, the assumption is that the Cap Hits of those contracts being adjusted will not be adjusted until the 26-27 season.

The ELC maximum is also rising, and this is going to push salaries at the low end up quite sharply. To recognize this, the Roster Emergency rule has changed. A roster emergency is where a team has to play short because they can't recall a player due to cap space limitations, so in the next game they can recall someone from the AHL who does not count against the cap. This used to be only players with an AAV of minimum salary plus $100,000, and you will see a lot of Leafs on ELCs and regular NHL contracts who are expected to be in the Marlies with a cap hit below $875,000. Easton Cowan is at $873,500 next season.

This formula will become minimum plus $375,000. This takes the pressure off players to sign lowball ELCs or regular SPCs to keep themselves in line for recalls. This helps teams too, in giving them more access to the recalls they actually want.

Expect this new reality to factor into term deals for depth players/tweeners and also ELCs. The amount you can earn and be a roster emergency recall player in 2026-2027 is $1.225 million.

The rising minimum will also drive the buriable amount up, another pressure on salaries to rise at the lower end.

The Qualifying Offer calculation has new thresholds as well and rises by higher percentages over the final year's salary at higher amounts. QOs will go up more, in other words, making teams possibly hesitate a little on RFA contracts.

These changes are going to ensure that players in the lowest salary brackets get some of the rising cap. But it will be a challenge for teams to figure out how to allocate cap space to their least important players.

All of that is about contracts, but I think the change that will have the biggest impact on how the NHL operates is this one:

Add new CBA Section 13.12(p) that provides as follows:

(p) A Player who has been Loaned to a minor league club, and was not credited with a day pursuant to (h) above for one (1) or more days since the Loan, must actually report to the club and play in one (1) or more games with such ninor league club before he is eligible for Recall. Notwithstanding the foregoing, a Goaltender on Loan who has played less than the required one (1) game may be Recalled if his NHL Club would otherwise have less than two Goaltenders available to dress in the Club's next game.

What this means is that the multiple practices teams use to gain cap space, save money, have more than 23 players on a road trip or any number of other reasons for "papering down" to the AHL can no longer take place. This includes papering down a player on deadline day to allow them to be AHL playoff eligible.

If a team can't paper down a player while in the middle of a road trip when they want to recall someone else for one game or make a trade or bank cap space then they will have to start thinking anew about who their depth players are, and given the changes above, how much they're paid. Operating tight to the cap is going to be a lot harder.

One other minor issue is that free agents signing from Europe who are 25-27 will no longer have to take a one-year ELC. This might give pause to some players this summer who might decide to wait a year and then negotiate a regular contract next year.

That's what struck me as most relevant to now.

Okay, I was not expecting to write about the CBA today. Instead I wanted to just tell you about this very long weekend.

Back when I became site manager at SBN, it was required that I write to a quota. This was actually easy to do barring the Covid downtime. But it wasn't particularly easy to just walk away for more than a long weekend. Now it's been two years plus with no quotas, no meetings, no one emailing me shit every day. And I decided I wanted a break.

This winter/spring was rather trying.

This summer seems perfect. The free agency period dried up faster than a puddle on a hot day, and if there's a trade, well... I don't think there will be, but if there is, it's actually possible to talk about things at times other than in the five minutes after Elliotte Friedman tweets it out. There's no chasing the illusory value of being first around here.

So, I am off from now until July 21. We are not doing FTBs. I am not going to look at this site. The community guidelines and TOS still hold, and you should basically turn the internet off and do something in three dimensions for a week. I plan to.

Gone Fishin' Be Back Soon!

Have a great week everyone.