Blame Canada: Salary Cap To Rise, But Not As High As Expected

Sportnet’s Chris Johnston tweeted out this neat little nugget of info after NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman’s media availability this morning:

The Canadian dollar currently sits at US $0.91. For comparison’s sake, the Canadian Dollar sat at US $1.01 back on January 6th, 2013 – the day the new CBA was agreed upon and the 2012-2013 NHL lockout ended.

If we operate under ‘worst case scenario’ rules, we’re looking at a $4.7M rise in the cap, which is still pretty significant. That being said, the Leafs aren’t exactly in a great cap situation, and they could have used the extra allowance.

According to Capgeek, the Leafs have the 13th most cap space heading into next season with $20,280,833.00, based on a $69M salary cap. That’s not half bad, until you realize that the Leafs have a league-low 12 players signed in 2014-2015.

Capgeek recognizes rosters as having 23 players (including a spare forward, defenceman, and goaltender). That means the Leafs have $1,843,712 to spend per empty roster spot next season (again, based on a $69M cap). 

In other words, the Leafs can afford to go out and sign eleven Vernon Fiddlers.