Puck Pedia: “Based on the tentative dates for the season, season is 115 days vs 186 days most years. That means each day a player is on an NHL roster counts 0.87% of their annual cap hit against the team’s cap – 0.54% last year. Each day is worth more than usual.
Accruing cap space with non-game day moves helps more. A $1M player on taxi squad/minors for 30 days saves $261K cap hit vs $161K in normal year. If trade deadline is still ~80% into season, $261K accrued cap space = $1.3M annual cap hit that can be added at deadline.