The biggest story during the 2025-2026 season will be whether or not Connor McDavid signs an extension in Edmonton. Every day that passes without fresh paper for the game’s best player will move every Oilers fan’s hand just a little closer to the bottle of bleach (not as medication, dumbass. Though I guess it is Alberta). But beyond that, and once McDavid likely re-signs in Edmonton, the other main storyline will be the Florida Panthers’ quest to be the first three-peat since the 80’s Islanders.
The NHL and the new CBA, some of which is going into effect this season, are throwing a major roadblock in front of them, however. That would be the new playoff salary cap, which means that every game during the playoffs, a team can only ice a team that is cap compliant. No more Ella Fitzgeralds and Boeskys with LTIR and the trade deadline to be able to put out something akin to an All-Star team come the middle of April.
A brief refresher. With the playoffs not having a salary cap in previous years, teams were able to dash a high-salary player on Long Term Injured Reserve from the deadline to the playoffs, which would create room for them to acquire players at the deadline they wouldn’t normally be able to afford. Once the playoffs arrived, they could activate said player before Game 1, and suddenly have a roster they’d never be able to afford during the regular season.
The Hawks in 2015 with Patrick Kane, the Lightning with Nikita Kucherov, the Knights with Mark Stone, and the Panthers last season with Matthew Tkachuk are the headliners when it comes to taking advantage of a player with a big cap hit getting injured and being sent to the land of wind and ghosts until the playoffs so that their GMs could acquire big names to augment their chase for the Cup. All these teams did, in fact, win the Cup the year they pulled some sleight of hand/fun with mirrors with the salary cap.
That’s no more, and the Panthers might have some issues. At the moment, they’re $4.5 million over the cap. That will almost certainly be solved before the season by putting Tkachuk on LTIR, as he’s still putting his entire torso and everything in it back together in a Tetris-like fashion since the playoffs. That’s fine for the regular season. Once he’s healthy, the Panthers can likely do some wheel poses and birds of paradise to keep staying under the limit.
But come the playoffs? Icing their best team, as it looks at the moment, isn’t possible. Going by their top 12 forwards, top six defensemen, and their two goalies, that’s $97.1 million. Which is obviously over the $95.5 million limit.
Obviously, anything can happen between now and April. Someone could be hurt and unavailable for the playoffs whose salary will get the Cats under. There could be a trade. But any trade that will get the Cats under this limit will probably be of a player who plays a decent to big role for them. Evan Rodrigues is a name that keeps popping up as possible ballast to be jettisoned overboard to get cap compliant. But Rodrigues is a pretty useful Swiss Army knife to play on any of the four lines. It wouldn’t be the biggest blow, but it wouldn’t be just a flesh wound, either.
Dmitry Kulikov is another candidate for ejection. But his salary wouldn’t be quite enough, as the Cats are currently constructed. Kulikov and Jesper Boqvist would be enough, but would erode some depth.
On top of that, this intimate relationship/dry humping of the cap is going to leave the Panthers with little flexibility before the trade deadline. Last year’s team was strongly buffeted by the pickups of Seth Jones and Brad Marchand, which were only possible thanks to Tkachuk’s groin turning to graham crackers. Then they were free to ice all three in the postseason. That’s not open this time.
As of right now, the roster we see now is the one that’s going to have to march on the Mordor of history. The roster that already has three straight trips to the Final and playing to late June on the odometer. The one that isn’t all that young to begin with. GM Bill Zito is about as creative as it gets. He might have to be if the Panthers are going to enter hockey’s Olympus.
The Playoff Salary Cap Is Coming For The Florida Panthers