Report: The Salary Cap Is Rising Quite a Bit

Signing Brooks Laich just became much easier for the Capitals. (Getty Images)

TSN is reporting that the salary cap is going to be rising again this off season, as it has for every season since the lockout when the salary cap was first instituted. This time, it is going up be a lot, should the reports be believed. This season's cap ceiling was $59.4 million, while next season is apparently going to be $64 million, a full $4.6 million increase. $4.6 million is, in short, a huge increase and is, dare I say, a game changer. Many teams have free agents who they want to keep or want to sign (Vancouver with their defensemen like Sami Salo, Kevin Bieksa, and Christian Ehrhoff; Philadelphia with their recently acquired goalie Ilya Bryzgalov; Washington with forward Brooks Laich and defenseman Scott Hannan; these are only a couple of teams). This should make next year's presumed Stanley Cup contenders (Washington, Vancouver, Boston, Philadelphia, Detroit, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay, San Jose, and Los Angeles) all better through free agency, and should be great news for people hoping their team keeps that one player everybody likes. Should be interesting how this increase affects the off season.