Quickly overwhelmed by the draft news, the NHL continues labor peace thanks to a new NHLPA head.
With the whirlwind of news since the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Final, it’s easy to overlook a monumental occurrence that was announced Friday before the world’s worst Zoom meeting aka the 2025 NHL Draft first round. The league announced along with the NHLPA that they had agreed to an extension of the Collective Bargaining Agreement until the end of the 2030 NHL season.
This agreement completes a 180 degree turn for a league that had been marked with lockouts following the end of each previous deal. Fans will remember the half seasons in 1995 and 2013, and the complete loss of the 2004-05 season all because of how the league and the players just could not bridge the gap in time.
A few things have changed since that 2013 agreement. First off, the pandemic hit right at the end of the last agreement and forced both sides to use common sense to make sure the league would keep going and the players would be paid. The pushing of the agreement since then allowed the league to negotiate a massive television rights deal in 2021 that exploded the league revenues thanks to the fact that the new rights holders knew they were at least getting a few years of peaceful coexistence.
Next up was the NHLPA moving on to get Marty Walsh as their head. The previous head, Donald Fehr, was brought on because the NHL was gearing up for a fight in 2012 and they wanted someone who would fight back. That lead to constant confrontation. Walsh was not confrontational. He was a union head, a Boston Mayor, and head of the Labor Department before leaving that post to take on the NHLPA job. He had experience in negotiating and dealing with wealthy business owners, and knew the back slapping that was needed to get things done. He also knew how to communicate that to the players and worked hard to earn their trust.
The fact that the salary cap wasn’t going anywhere and that the two sides had seen what can happen when they negotiate with a mutual interest also helped make this the least contentious negotiation between the two sides in who knows how long. The new agreement extending beyond the end of the US television deals in 2028 means that they can go into the next round of negotiations stronger. Both sides recognized this and in the end, you get a deal that has relatively minor changes.
So what will be different when the 2026 league year begins?
- The big news is that the NHL will move to an 84 game regular season. While there has been grousing about this, it should be noted that it’s coming at the expense of two less preseason games. The return for the players is a limit on how many preseason games they play, which should help reduce their wear and tear plus give newer players a chance to earn roster spots. This should bring the schedule back to where you play all division rivals four times.
- The eight and seven year max deals are now down to seven and six year deals—seven if the team you are on retains you and six if you go to a new team. This starts next offseason so you’ll still see seven and eight years signed, and it’s possible that change will spur some additional signings this summer.
- There will be no more skirting the salary cap in the playoffs with LTIR. While it’s clear that there’s a risk to having a player sit for a long time then miraculously come back for the playoffs, too many had used it and succeeded to where owners as a whole wanted it gone. But in return, the playoff prize pool for players has been significantly bumped up.
- The Draft rights will be easier to understand. It’s now capped at 22 years old across the board, regardless of where someone started. The only exception will be if a player drafted plays in college for longer than their 22nd birthday, then a team holds those rights for 30 days after the end of their college career.
- Call it the Eric Tulsky Provision: after using deferred money in both the Jacob Slaavin and Seth Jarvis deals—as well as others that followed—there will be no more deferred money allowed in deals.
- The highest a signing bonus can be is 60% of the total deal, at least in terms of calculating for the buyout. Expect that to factor into offer sheets, but the big deal is the reduce the ability of teams to buy contracts out at a cheaper rate since more money was paid up front.
- Teams will be able to hire a full time EBUG that will stay and travel with the team. As wonderful as the David Ayers story was, it allows teams to have a little bit more of a net should they be on the road and both goalies get knocked out of action.
- Players are getting a increase in benefits like post career help and items like insurance and payroll taxes are being taken out of the Owners’ share and no longer being the players responsibility.
- Teams cannot mandate a dress code, instead there’s a relatively loose one league-wide.
- The minimum Salary will jump up $50k each season ending to $1 million by the 2030 season
- Any new player entering the league with the 2026-27 must wear neck protection.
- The NHL will participate in the 2030 Winter Olympics
- No more Fitness Tests in the regular season or training camps—likely asked by anyone who had played for the Hurricanes and were embarrassed to lose to Rod Brind’Amour
- No more “paper transfers” to the AHL. If you’re demoted, you have to go and play at least one game before you can come back to the roster. Players wanted this because even though they had to practice with the big club they were being paid at their AHL rate during that paper transaction. With the cap explosion this shouldn’t be needed as much in the next few season but it takes another took out for GM’s.
- European Players aged 25-27 will no longer have to sign an Entry-Level Contract when they come to the NHL. Note this wouldn’t have mattered for Alexander Nikishin, who is 23.
A lot of changes though nothing major. It’s an encouraging sign that both sides were able to come to this agreement early, without any brinkmanship, and set a precedent that should allow for the next CBA to be negotiated just as easily. By then, the league will have a new TV deal and both sides will know what sort of revenue they are working with.