The Montreal Canadiens head into the offseason with one eye on the NHL’s salary cap. Teams can’t just spend freely anymore and need to keep the cap in mind when making trades and signing new players for the organization.
The salary cap was set at $82.5 million in 2022-23. The players still owe money to the owners from the Covid shortened seasons. Players and owners are supposed to split hockey-related revenues 50/50, but when games were cancelled and fans were not allowed into arenas in 2020 and 2021, the players were still paid their contracts.
The owners took a hit at that time and the players salaries have been scaled back somewhat each season since to make up the difference.