NHL Insider Confirms Minimum Salary Cap For 2026-27 Season: Here's Why it Benefits the Leafs

The implementation of a hard salary cap in the NHL is viewed by many as something that is hurting the product, but the truth is that it has allowed a little more stability league-wide and has allowed more teams to be able to compete for hockey's greatest prize.

Revenues in the NHL have never been higher, and according to several reports over the last year, the cap will only continue to rise, as confirmed by The Fourth Period's David Pagnotta on Tuesday.

Pagnotta was a guest on Winnipeg Sports Talk on Tuesday, where he revealed publicly that the NHL's salary cap will reach a minimum of $104M -- an $8.5M jump -- in the summer of 2026, with the potential for an even bigger climb.

This latest announcement is substantial, but perhaps gives the Toronto Maple Leafs the biggest edge. Not only are the Leafs finally out of salary cap trouble, they actually have a glut of cap space heading into next summer, which is when players like Connor McDavid, Kirill Kaprizov, Jack Eichel and Artemi Panarin are due to become UFAs.

The pipe dream notion for much of the last year or two has been that Toronto native Connor McDavid could be contemplating leaving Edmonton and signing in in his hometown as a UFA next summer. However, with McDavid still unsigned, and with his recent comments about not rushing into anything with the Oilers, fans are beginning to believe that the mother of all homecomings is actually possible.

Early reports suggest that McDavid could be looking for as much as $17M per season on his next deal. After the latest cap announcement, the Leafs are actually in a position to be able to offer him something in that neighborhood.

Time will tell how it all unfolds for the Leafs, but with some pretty substantial names potentially heading to the open market on July 1, 2026, the timing has never been better for the Leafs' salary cap woes to be behind them.