Wild fans were given a peek Friday into how much money the Wild will have to spend on free agents next season, and how they might manage to sign Kirill Kaprizov to a long-term contract extension.
The NHL and NHL Players Association announced what amount to early agreements on how much the salary cap — set at $88 million before this season — will rise for each of the next three seasons. Generally, the increases are set from season to season.
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According to a joint release, next year’s cap will rise by $7.5 million.
After that — “Subject to the Collective Bargaining Agreement being in effect beyond the 2025-26 season,” the release said — it will raise an additional $8.5 million for 2026-27 and $9.5 million for 2027-28.
That would set the upper limit on NHL player payrolls at $113.5 million for 2027-28, although the sides said in their statement that “will be subject to potential minor adjustments (up or down).”
The projections beyond next season are subject to further negotiations between the NHL and players union.
“The parties still intend to meet to discuss other elements of the Collective Bargaining Agreement that might need modification and/or improvement beyond the 2025-26 season,” the release said.
In shorthand, with Marcus Johansson’s $2 million also coming off the books, the Wild will have more than roughly $22 million in available cap space when free agency begins July 1, a mammoth increase from what general manager Bill Guerin has had at his disposal for the past two offseasons.
That’s because the Wild have been spending a combined $14.7 million of their team salary on Zach Parise and Ryan Suter as part of the team’s decision to buy out the remainder of their identical, 13-year, $98 million contracts in 2021. Next year, that falls to a combined $1.6 million a year through 2028-29.
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Neither Guerin nor team owner Craig Leipold immediately returned requests for comment Friday.
According to the numbers, NHL team payrolls will be capped at $104 million in 2026-27, which will be the first season of Kaprizov’s new contract, wherever he plays. That’s significant as the 27-year-old left wing is in line for a major raise on his $9 million salary.
That’s what he’ll make next year, as well, in the final year of his deal, but after this season, the Wild will have exclusive bargaining rights on an extension for Kaprizov, already the best player in the franchise’s 25-year history.
Despite missing the past month with a lower-body injury — which the team said this week will sideline him at least another month following surgery — Kaprizov still leads the team with 23 goals and 52 points. His 2021-22 season set franchise highs with 47 goals and 108 points, and his 183 goals in 4½ seasons are just 36 behind the 2019 that Marian Gaborik scored in eight seasons in Minnesota.
Toronto’s Auston Matthews is the NHL’s highest-paid player in annual salary, making $13.25 million a year. Nathan MacKinnon, last year’s Hart Trophy winner, is making $12.6 million in Colorado, and Edmonton star center Connor McDavid is making $12.5 million.
Before he was hurt, Kaprizov was a serious candidate to become the first Wild player to win the Hart Trophy. During a preseason game this fall at Xcel Energy Center, Leipold said signing Kaprizov — a fifth-round pick out of Russia in 2015 — to an extension is the team’s top offseason priority.
“I will tell you nobody will offer more money than us, or (for) longer,” he said on Oct. 1. “So, all we have to do is prove to him that we want to win.”
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The Wild have largely defied expectations this season despite having, essentially, zero salary cap space, sitting fourth in the Western Conference on Friday after winning a pair of games in Toronto and Montreal. Their 20-5-3 road record is the NHL’s best.
The agreement between the NHL and its players union is aimed at providing “increased predictability on core Salary Cap economics,” the sides said in their statement.
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