Avalanche News
NHL Insider Frank Seravalli Outlines CBA Timeline That Benefits the Avalanche
It sounds like some of the new CBA changes we’ve discussed all summer will come into play earlier than next September. And the Avalanche could take advantage of at least one of them.
NHL Insider Frank Seravalli reported on Tuesday that the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association have agreed to an implementation schedule for CBA changes.
Sources: The #NHL and #NHLPA have agreed to a rolling implementation schedule for CBA changes.
Among them: the new playoff salary cap system will come into effect *this season* for the 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs.
— Frank Seravalli (@frank_seravalli) September 2, 2025
The most notable of the bunch is the implementation of the new playoff salary cap system for the upcoming 2026 Stanley Cup playoffs. That means teams won’t be able to bury players on LTIR until April and then activate them in the postseason despite being above the salary cap.
How could the Avs take advantage of this? Simply by having cap flexibility.
The fact that the Avalanche currently have cap space flexibility already puts them at an advantage. And if that cap continues to grow and accrue over the course of the season, they’ll be able to utilize it to their advantage at the trade deadline.
Most importantly, they can take advantage of teams struggling to remain cap compliant. And I’m willing to wager that no team hates this early implementation of the playoff salary cap system more than the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers.
Earlier in the summer, I wrote that Colorado should target Evan Rodrigues from the Panthers. He looks like the obvious odd man out if the team needs to trade someone to remain under the cap ceiling. But then rumors started to circulate that Matthew Tkachuk was going to start the season on LTIR, and that was all but confirmed in recent weeks.
The Panthers suddenly have time to decide what to do. They don’t have to trade Rodrigues or anyone else to get under the cap right away. But they’ll have to eventually.
They won’t be able to play the LTIR game all season. If someone else gets hurt when Tkachuk returns, they can kick the can further down the road, but they won’t be able to do that all the way until the playoffs start. The roster, as currently constructed, with everyone healthy, is not cap compliant, and won’t be able to all dress at the same time in the regular season or playoffs.
Should the Avs still target Rodrigues? We’ll have to wait and see. It depends on how Victor Olofsson looks on the third line and if they decide they need an upgrade. And after that, they’ll have to determine if Rodrigues at $3 million until 2027 is the best option.
But even if not him, or the Panthers, the Avalanche’s cap flexibility will allow them an opportunity to get someone from a cap strapped team before the playoffs.
The next advantage for the Avs is confirmation from Seravalli’s report that new contract structures will not take effect until Sept. 16, 2026.
You can click the article below for more on why this helps the Avalanche. But in short, Cale Makar can sign a new deal under the current rules after July 1, but before Sept. 16. And the same rules will apply for all free agents on July 1, including UFA Martin Necas and RFA Jack Drury.
Read More: New CBA Changes Likely Won’t Affect Cale Makar’s Next Contract with Avalanche
This is incredible news, and feels like it was targeted directly at both Florida and Vegas – two teams that were expected to abuse LTIR and have frequently in the past, respectively. I’m all for it!
The way I understand the new cap in the playoffs rule is that the roster on the ice has to be complayant with the cap. This is in contrast to during the season when the whole roster counts, including a couple of extras taking up 1.5-2 million cap space in total that most teams keep. So, unless Florida was planning to have significant money on LTIR the whole season, this doesn’t change much for them necessarily. Vegas (or any team doing what they usually do) on the other hand won’t be able to rest Stone from TDL in order to… Read more »
I believe Florida planned on having Tkachuk on LTIR most, if not all of the season. That’s why they may not have had a need to trade a guy like Rodrigues. However, as Aarif said, their roster as currently constructed is well over the hard cap, so they’ll have to unload someone before bringing Tkachuk back onto the roster – which they wouldn’t have had to if he came back in the playoffs before this rule took effect.
Teams have needed an accountant in the front office for some time. It’s starting to look like a fan needs to be an accountant to understand professional hockey. My head hurts.
Right? Now try figuring out the NFL or NBA cap… that shit makes my head spin.
Cheers to that, the NBA salary cap system makes absolutely no sense. Ag the the NHL has a hard cap that simplifies it a little.
Having cap space during the year could actually backfire on a contender. These are all round numbers so don’t pick apart the detail but if a team has $5 million in cap space to start the year they accrue that space until the half way point of the year then make a trade. They can add a player for $10 million. For the rest of the year their daily cap hit is above the actual salary cap as they are using the space they accrued over the first half of the season. Assuming they had no injuries etc they would… Read more »
True, I haven’t thought about that. Makes it less important to accrue cap space but still a bit helpful. Teams can play a short bench in playoffs if they want to squeeze in another star player for example.
Guess I’m in the minority regarding having no issue with the LTIR loophole. For all of the hand wringing here in the comments about Vegas & FL. I see no mention of the Avs utilitizing the same loophole last year. When Landeskog was activated lol. I don’t care about teams abusing it. Every potential playoff team or cup contender could’ve circumvented the cap if savvy enough. Or put in a position where they could do so. The cap was easy to understand. No need to add further parameters to add more confusion. As other have pointed out. We as fans… Read more »