Rangers will have more spending flexibility next season under new NHL salary-cap agreement
The New York Rangers will be able to spend a lot more money on salaries next season after the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association announced Friday that they’ve reached an agreement that will give more salary cap predictability for at least the next three seasons — through 2027-28.
The agreement sets the annual increases to the upper limit, subject to the Collective Bargaining Agreement being in effect beyond the 2025-26 season, at $7.5 million in 2025-26, $8.5 million in 2026-27 and $9.5 million in 2027-28.
The League and the PA also announced team payroll ranges for the next three seasons. The upper limit in 2025-26 will be $95.5 million, a 7.5 percent jump from $88 million this season, and the lower limit will be $70.6 million. For 2026-27, the upper limit will be $104 million and the lower limit $76.9 million, and in 2027-28, the upper limit will be $113.5 million and the lower limit $83.9 million.
The big jump in cap space is excellent news for the Rangers, who already have $73,242,857 committed to 12 players for next season, according to Puckpedia. That includes $11.5 million to goaltender Igor Shesterkin in the first of the eight-year, $92 million contract he signed on Dec, 7 — and it’s a big jump from his $5,666,667 cap hit for 2024-25.
Defenseman Will Borgen, acquired from the Seattle Kraken for forward Kaapo Kakko last month, signed a five-year contract last week and will see his cap hit jump from $2.7 million to $4.1 million.
The Rangers also have to re-sign a number of their own free agents. Defenseman K’Andre Miller (restricted free agent with arbitration rights) is likely due for a good-sized jump from this season’s AAV of $3.872 million, and forward Will Cuylle, who’s coming off an entry-level contract that pays him $828,333 this season, is in line for a raise, likely on a bridge deal. Fourth-line forwards Adam Edstrom and Matt Rempe are also coming off entry-level deals.
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Rangers get more flexibility to spend under new salary-cap deal
Four Rangers defensemen will also need new contracts. In addition to Miller, Ryan Lindgren, who can become an unrestricted free agent this summer, makes $4.5 million this season. Urho Vaakanainen, acquired from Anaheim in the Dec. 6 trade that sent Jacob Trouba to the Anaheim Ducks, is coming off a $1.1 million contract and is a restricted free agent with arbitration rights. Zac Jones, who’s spent much of the past few weeks as the seventh defenseman, also is an RFA with arbitration rights and is making $812,500.
The Rangers and 38-year-old backup goalie Jonathan Quick will have to decide what he’s doing next season. Quick is making $1.25 million; the Rangers could probably get him for about that number next season — if he wants to keep on playing.
With the salary cap rising significantly and New York already shedding the salaries of Trouba and Barclay Goodrow, the Rangers are set up to be aggressive players in 2025 free agency, as well as the trade market. Elite free agents Mikko Rantanen and Mitchell Marner will land top dollar; and the Rangers could have interest in adding an upgrade to their defense corps to replace Lindgren.
This season’s salary cap is up $4.5 million from $83.5 million in 2023-24. The salary cap for the 2022-23 season was $82.5 million, marking the first time the cap increased in three years due to the pandemic — it remained at $81.5 million from 2019-20 through 2021-22.
The League and the union also said the projected payroll ranges for the 2026-27 and 2027-28 seasons will be subject to potential minor adjustments — up or down.
“Both clubs and players have sought a certain level of predictability with respect to payroll ranges from year to year and over time for advance planning capabilities,” NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly told TSN’s Pierre LeBrun. “In reviewing our numbers with the Players’ Association as part of our collective bargaining, we finally felt like we were in a position to give them that.
“It’s not ‘absolute certainty,’ but maybe it’s the next best thing.”
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said in December that the salary cap for next season was projected to be $92.4 million, a $4 million jump from this season. But Bettman, speaking at the Board of Governors meeting in Florida, said then that there was a potential of the cap going even higher pending a possible negotiation between the NHL and NHLPA.
The NHL and the PA said Friday they still plan to meet to discuss other elements of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that might need modification and/or improvement beyond the 2025-26.
Bettman said in December he hopes to have a new collective bargaining agreement finalized this year, potentially before the Stanley Cup Final begins in June.
“I don’t want to prognosticate on collective bargaining,” he said. “We have a very open, constructive relationship with the Players’ Association right now. … So we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves and prognosticate as to what’s going to happen, although we hope to do this as quickly and as seamlessly as possible.”
The news of the cap adjustments comes less than two weeks before the start of the 4 Nations Face-Off, a best-on-best international tournament that involves NHL players from Canada, Finland, Sweden and the United States. Four Rangers will play in the tournament: Mika Zibanejad for Sweden and Adam Fox, Chris Kreider and Vincent Trocheck for the United States.
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