Gone are the days of the lockouts as the NHL and the NHLPA for the second time in a row have taken care of their business and have a proposed CBA for ratification well in advance of its expiration. A rising salary cap and the league having enough money to go around thanks to gambling, new tv contracts, and expansion will do that. At the moment, how the NHL and the NHLPA got here isn’t important, what is important is that you can count on hockey being played right up until 2030.
With the announcement of the proposed CBA come some of the details of what is being proposed. Daily Faceoff has the full details here if you want to read about the continued 50/50 revenue split between owners and the league, but below is a bit of a dive into some of the more tangible items from the agreement that will have an impact on the Maple Leafs.
The 84-game season
The 82-game season already seems a little long, especially when most of the meaningful playoff races are decided well in advance of the conclusion of the year. But the regular season is also how the league makes its money and adding two more games in a gate driven league is certainly something that owners would push for.
The nice trade off here is that it comes with fewer preseason games and that can only be a good thing. Fewer chances for injuries in games that truly don’t count and an emphasis on figuring out and tinkering with the roster over the course of the 84 games rather than trying to get it right in mismatched preseason games feels like it will save teams from themselves and not overthink giving spots to players who thrive when the hockey matters the least.
Max contract lengths dropping by a year
What is interesting about this taking effect in 2026-27 is that this summer and next will be the last two years that free agents can receive an eight-year deal from their own team or a seven-year deal from a new club. The result is that you might see a run on long term contracts from players who view this as their last chance to lock in for that length, and possibly with this year’s free agent class you might see some one year deals that set them up for signing long term next summer.
One year won’t make much of a difference in the long run and with Auston Matthews we’ve already seen the Leafs star players shifting away from that max term approach. This could however have an impact in the Matthew Knies negotiations this year but other than that the Leafs don’t have any other free agents of note that a long term deal would be considered either this summer or next. It just might be that Toronto has to offer a few more seven year deals in unrestricted free agency over the next couple of summers to entice free agents, but again that is still playing on the same playing field as the rest of the league.
Other key contract changes in addition to the lower term limit:There will be a new 60 per cent ceiling on signing bonus money; variance year-to-year lowered to 20 per cent.
— Elliotte Friedman (Bot) (@notfriedgehnic.bsky.social) 2025-06-26T15:47:56.417754Z
Further contract changes involve removing some of the incentives that the Maple Leafs like to offer up, naming signing bonuses. A key tactic for the Leafs was the ability to one lump sum most of the annual payment for players, but that is now reduced to 60%, potentially. That’s not to say that the Leafs can’t still offer up 60% as a signing bonus almost religiously but there is a greater likelihood that other teams will be capable of doing the same and closing that slight attraction/retention advantage the Leafs had. On the plus side it will make it easier for the Leafs to buyout their regrettable contracts as the bonuses are often the barrier.
The variance between year-to-year deals also goes after deals similar to what Toronto offered Chris Tanev and makes it harder to include years at the end of a deal for the purpose of bringing down the average annual value.
Here’s an example of a deal starting with a year one $10M payment and how it effects the cap hit:
| Salary | Total Contract | AAV | |
| Year 1 | $10,000,000 | $10,000,000 | $10,000,000 |
| Year 2 | $8,000,000 | $18,000,000 | $9,000,000 |
| Year 3 | $6,400,000 | $24,400,000 | $8,133,333 |
| Year 4 | $5,120,000 | $29,520,000 | $7,380,000 |
| Year 5 | $4,096,000 | $33,616,000 | $6,723,200 |
| Year 6 | $3,276,800 | $36,892,800 | $6,148,800 |
| Year 7 | $2,621,440 | $39,514,240 | $5,644,891 |
Draft pick rights held until 22 years of age
There might be some more clarity required on this one as the rules for Europe might be more complicated than with the CHL and NCAA application of this rule. It’s hard to imagine the European rules are changing but basically the 22 years of age thing gives clubs a longer stretch of time to figure out their players drafted out of the CHL and doesn’t allow for players who might leave their NCAA teams early to be able to force free agency before they are 22 years old.
There will also need to be some clarity around whether or not players drafted now having their rights held until the age of 22 and if this impacts players already in the system or if players drafted in 2027 will be the first group that the new rule applies to. I’d suspect the latter and for the Leafs, an organization that doesn’t have a lot of prospects of note, having time to prepare is beneficial. If it potentially takes effect on the players already in the system, the approach does lend itself to project players in the late rounds having more value and that is something the Leafs can take into account this weekend.
Teams will carry an emergency backup goaltender
Think more bullpen catcher than third string goaltender, but damned if teams aren’t going to game the system and rich teams will have a notably more capable emergency backup goaltender than other clubs. This small advantage will exist for the Leafs.
The e-Bug will be available every game, can practice with the team, but can’t take reps in the minors or get tossed into a game just for the purpose of getting reps.
This won’t be hugely impactful but I’m sure there will be some interesting names around the league that are e-BUGs the same way that racing teams often have a “remembering a guy” reserve drivers.
Ending the LTIR playoff loophole
The Daily Faceoff article is light on the details here, but it seems like the days of Kucherov being on LTIR and the Lightning spending or Tkachuk being put on LTIR and the Panthers going out and getting Seth Jones and Brad Marchand are over. The state of Florida has had a good run with this, as has Vegas, and based on Edmonton’s situation with Evander Kane the league is truly trying to put this to rest.
Given that the Leafs closest attempt at doing something here was holding out Max Pacioretty until the second game of the playoffs, Toronto wasn’t really doing much with the loophole anyway and closing it seems like a best case scenario for the Leafs.
The rising salary cap
With the CBA discussion also comes the promise of a rising salary cap:
2025-26: $95.5M
2026-27: $104M
2027-28: $113M
Take those numbers into account when deciding what you think of Matthew Knies’ next deal as it will potentially look reasonable in a year’s time anyway. The rising cap will lead to higher average player contracts and will probably water down free agency as teams can afford to keep their players, but it could potentially result in the return of hockey trades. (Time to rid your roster of no trade and no movement deals.)
It also could usher in a return to some teams not being capable of spending at the same level as others and Toronto could find themselves with advantages like being able to payout more in signing bonuses and take on players who have salary higher than their cap hits in certain seasons. There are smart ways of using finances here and that is where Brandon Pridham could continue to play an important role and may arguably need a bigger role.
The Knies contract is the last big one that the Leafs really need to concern themselves with internally before heading into this time of excess cap space so it will be interesting to see what organizational strategy unfolds for using that money.
Other things of note
- Teams can’t mandate a dress code for players on gamedays. It will be interesting to see who has been waiting to show up in sweatpants.
- The Stanley Cup playoff bonus fund is doubling. Maybe that is the incentive the Leafs were looking for to win in the playoffs.
- No more deferred salary in contracts. Anything that makes reading PuckPedia easier is a win, and this make Jake McCabe’s deal an interesting footnote.
- As mentioned above the Hockey Related Revenue remains a 50/50 split. You can take comfort in the rich getting richer.
- Benefits are improving. Most notably it seems like things will be better for life after hockey and that is something that needed to be addressed.
More details are likely to emerge in the coming days and there are likely to be a few quirky additions to the CBA as well that could be fun to look at but for the most part, this seems like it will have no problem being ratified and the NHL will continue. Unfortunately, the hard salary cap remains and as such the greatest advantage the Leafs could have been given still eludes them, but at least they’ll be playing.