The NHLPA has agreed to use the escalator to help raise the salary cap to $75 million next season.
Cap range will go from $55.4M to a ceiling of $75M for next season
— Elliotte Friedman (@FriedgeHNIC) June 18, 2017
This means the players have agreed to pay more in escrow so that they can be paid more in-season. Escrow is the amount that the players have to have taken out of their paychecks so the NHL meets the revenue splitting arrangement set out in the CBA.
The cap floor is of great importance as well as that is the amount that all teams have to have on NHL payroll. Unlike last year where the Arizona Coyotes were able to pay both Chris Pronger and Pavel Datsyuk to not play, those contracts are up this year. However, Marc Savard is still being paid by the New Jersey Devils. On the other hand, a team like the Vegas Golden Knights have a pretty easy job reaching that dollar amount.
Historically, the cap floor is now well above the first year of the salary cap. When the salary cap was first introduced it was set at $39 million. That means that since 2005 the cap has grown by $36 million dollars.
This news does not really affect the Winnipeg Jets because they have been far under the cap since day one.
