NHL salary cap by team — 2026-27
Roster capacity — the cap signal we can prove today
Computed from our daily official-roster snapshots — no licensed data involved, and it's the cap angle that actually moves outcomes: a club at 23/23 has no cheap internal answer when a regular goes down (expect trade or call-up scramble, lines shuffle, more minutes for the next option). A club at 21/23 absorbs injuries with spare parts. Bettors: full rosters turn injuries into worse teams. Poolers: empty slots mean free minutes.
Snapshot 2026-11-13: 28 clubs at 23+ (no room), 0 carrying two or more open slots.
Recorded contract dollars by team
Sum of the contract AAVs our own ledger holds for each club — every one tied to a public announcement. This is money we have recorded, not the team's payroll: the NHL publishes no free contract feed, so these totals start empty and fill as deals get announced. A high number here means active business, not a full cap sheet — blanks are honesty, not an error.
| Team | Deals logged | Recorded AAV total |
|---|---|---|
| VGK | 45 | $134.3M |
| CBJ | 46 | $131.9M |
| TOR | 46 | $131.1M |
| FLA | 46 | $128.7M |
| NYR | 48 | $127.0M |
| PIT | 49 | $126.4M |
| LAK | 48 | $125.2M |
| WSH | 47 | $124.4M |
| ANA | 46 | $123.3M |
| TBL | 48 | $122.4M |
| MTL | 46 | $121.8M |
| UTA | 47 | $120.9M |
| NJD | 41 | $120.7M |
| STL | 47 | $120.5M |
| MIN | 42 | $119.8M |
| OTT | 44 | $117.4M |
| DAL | 37 | $117.4M |
| NYI | 45 | $117.3M |
| COL | 38 | $116.6M |
| CAR | 45 | $116.3M |
| PHI | 47 | $115.6M |
| WPG | 43 | $113.0M |
| BOS | 40 | $112.9M |
| EDM | 42 | $112.6M |
| BUF | 44 | $111.2M |
| CHI | 42 | $110.9M |
| NSH | 45 | $110.2M |
| SEA | 45 | $105.7M |
| CGY | 44 | $104.7M |
| SJS | 42 | $104.1M |
| DET | 43 | $103.7M |
| VAN | 44 | $101.9M |
Collected contracts
1428 deals logged this season, newest first — each linked to its source. signing extension other
| Deal | Player | Team | Term | AAV | Announced | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| signing | Ben Hutton | NYI | 1y | $900K | Nov. 5, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Alexander Nikishin | CAR | 1y | $3M | Oct. 25, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Connor Hellebuyck | NJD | 7y | $8.5M | Oct. 23, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Luke Glendening | NYR | 1y | $850K | Oct. 22, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | David Perron | DAL | 1y | $850K | Oct. 16, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Michael Bunting | PHI | 1y | $1.2M | Oct. 6, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Tristan Luneau | ANA | 6y | $866K | Oct. 1, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | William Karlsson | VGK | 2y | $5.9M | Sept. 30, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Logan Stanley | NYI | 1y | $1.5M | Sept. 27, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Nick Blankenburg | TOR | 1y | $1.4M | Sept. 27, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Matt Grzelcyk | BUF | 1y | $850K | Sept. 25, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Alexander Nylander | CGY | 1y | $850K | Sept. 25, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Adam Fantilli | CBJ | 6y | $13.75M | Sept. 24, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Tim Washe | ANA | 4y | $813K | Sept. 19, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Brennan Othmann | CGY | 1y | $975K | Sept. 18, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Ethan Del Mastro | CHI | 2y | $950K | Sept. 17, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Matthew Poitras | BOS | 1y | $850K | Sept. 16, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Drake Batherson | OTT | 8y | $4.97M | Sept. 16, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Arber Xhekaj | MTL | 1y | $1.5M | Sept. 15, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Alex Newhook | MTL | 4y | $2.9M | Sept. 15, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Cutter Gauthier | ANA | 6y | $13.5M | Sept. 15, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Cam Talbot | CBJ | 1y | $950K | Sept. 14, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Zachary Bolduc | MTL | 4y | $4.2M | Sept. 13, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Chris Kreider | MTL | 1y | $2.15M | Sept. 12, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Mark Stone | VGK | 2y | $9.5M | Sept. 12, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Mike Reilly | CAR | 1y | $850K | Sept. 10, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Braeden Bowman | VGK | 6y | $875K | Sept. 10, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Alex Formenton | EDM | 1y | $850K | Sept. 9, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Ilya Samsonov | SJS | 1y | $850K | Sept. 8, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Jacob Melanson | SEA | 3y | $1.45M | Sept. 4, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Zeev Buium | VAN | 8y | $967K | Sept. 4, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Brendan Brisson | TOR | 1y | $850K | Sept. 4, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Eeli Tolvanen | NYR | 1y | $1.5M | Sept. 2, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Kevin Korchinski | CHI | 2y | $1.32M | Aug. 29, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Vincent Iorio | NYR | 1y | $850K | Aug. 21, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Cruz Lucius | ANA | 2y | $1.05M | Aug. 20, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Scott Morrow | NYR | 1y | $850K | Aug. 19, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Nolan Foote | PHI | 1y | $850K | Aug. 19, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Hunter McDonald | PHI | 2y | $913K | Aug. 18, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Adam Novotný | VAN | 3y | $1.07M | Aug. 11, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Ville Koivunen | PIT | 8y | $4M | Aug. 6, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Nikita Grebenkin | PHI | 2y | $1.1M | Aug. 6, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Maksymilian Szuber | MTL | 1y | $850K | Aug. 3, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Collin Graf | SJS | 3y | $4.25M | July 31, 2026 | source ↗ |
| extension | Macklin Celebrini | SJS | 5y | $975K | July 29, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Alex Jefferies | NYI | 1y | $850K | July 29, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Cole Sillinger | CBJ | 3y | $4.63M | July 25, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Nikita Klepov | ANA | 3y | $1.07M | July 25, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Akira Schmid | FLA | 2y | $2M | July 24, 2026 | source ↗ |
| signing | Patrick Kane | CHI | 2y | $8M | July 23, 2026 | source ↗ |
Common cap questions
What is AAV (cap hit)?
A contract's cap hit — AAV, annual average value — is total value ÷ term. A 7-year, $61.25M deal counts $8.75M against the cap every season, win or lose. Cap space is the league ceiling minus the sum of every contract's AAV on the roster.
Why don't you show full cap space by team?
Because nobody may give it to us for free: the NHL publishes no contract feed, and the compiled databases (CapFriendly, Spotrac) own their tables — we won't re-publish them. So we publish only what we verify ourselves, one sourced deal at a time. Where our table is blank, we say so instead of guessing.
Why does roster capacity matter for bets and fantasy?
A club carrying a full 23-man roster has no cheap internal answer when a regular goes down — expect a call-up scramble, D-zone pairings shuffle and more minutes for the next option. A club at 21 has spare parts and barely blinks. Bettors should fade full rosters when injuries hit; poolers should hunt the free minutes on the other side.
Related free-of-licensing pages: roster moves (who filled which slot, with fantasy impact) and the playoff race (capacity and depth feed these odds). Teams' pages show every player's 84-game projection.