Rumor: NHL Salary Cap To Rise As High As $63.5 Million

There has been speculation all season that the National Hockey League salary cap was going to rise from the current $59.4 million next season.  Much of the speculation had been about the cap rising to $62.4 million, but George Malik over at Kuklas Korner is reporting that NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly announced earlier today that the NHL salary cap will rise for next season to as high as $63.5 million.  If the cap does increase by the full $4.1 million next year it would be a huge boost to the New York Rangers in terms of keeping their key restricted free agents and their chase for Brad Richards.

Currently, the New York Rangers have 14 players signed for $42,612,500, which does not count Del Zotto or Zuccarello who finished the season in the AHL.  Having nearly $21 million to work with gives the organization huge flexibility which could only increase if some of the rumored buyouts actually happen.  This is going to be a fun offseason and early next week I will look at what the Rangers could do with all this money and what next season’s roster could potentially look like.