NHL Rumors: Salary Cap may go up in 2022; and will the Wild trade Kevin Fiala?
Anthony Scultore
|
There appears to be some good news on the salary cap front for many NHL teams. According to a report from Frank Seravalli, the cap may rise for the 2022-23 season.
[brid video=”840118″ player=”23765″ title=”NHL%20has%2017%20players%20file%20for%20salary%20arbitration” duration=”65″ description=”NHL: Juuse Saros, Vince Dunn, and Adam Pelech lead list of 17 players filing for arbitration” uploaddate=”2021-08-04″ thumbnailurl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/snapshot/840032.png” contentUrl=”https://cdn.brid.tv/live/partners/17660/streaming/840032/840032.m3u8″]
NHL Rumors: Salary Cap may rise
The NHL is is projecting revenue this season to be close to $5 billion. That is leading to optimism that the cap ceiling will climb from $81.5 million to $82.5 million for the 2022-23 campaign. The NHL is entering its third season under the flat-cap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The NHL is projecting a $1 million bump in the salary cap to $82.5 million next offseason ahead of the 2022-23 season, according to sources, which would mark the first rise in the league’s upper-limit since the COVID-19 significantly upended business operations, de-linked the cap from revenue and ballooned a billion-dollar debt load that players are working to pay back to owners.
Daily Faceoff
Hopefully this comes to fruition. An increase in the cap ceiling is good for the NHL, especially with regards to movement by contenders who tend to spend high every season.
Will the Wild trade Kevin Fiala?
In a rare move, the Minnesota Wild opted to exercise their club option for salary arbitration with Kevin Fiala.
While GM Bill Guerin tries to get Kirill Kaprizov under a new deal; he still has to make sure he can retain Fiala. The 24 year-old RFA had an excellent season for Minnesota. In 50 games, he scored 20 goals and 20 assists for 40 points that included 5 game-winning goals.
For his career, Fiala has registered 198 points in 337 games between Nashville and Minnesota.
So why did the Wild opt to file when the player did not? With the uncertainty on Kaprizov, this will at least ensure that Fiala will be under contract for the start of camp and not a hold out.
You can expect the Wild to submit a minor increase from his current $3M to the arbitrator and Fiala’s camp will then come in with a number in the $6M range. Due to it being club elected, after the arbitrator’s award, Fiala can pick the term, which would likely be two years so he can become a UFA.
Of course, the two sides could come hammer out a contract prior to it ever going that far. However, should it happen the Wild may opt to trade Fiala knowing that he will most likely walk away at the end of the deal.
