NHL Salary Cup Rules: Explaining everything ahead of free agency

NHL free agency officially starts July 1 as teams look to improve their team by signing players.

Although this free agent class isn't as good as past years, there are still many players who can make a difference, but teams need to be aware of the cap.

For the 2023-24 NHL season, the salary cap is set to go up $1 million to $83.5 million. But, outside of the salary cap, what are the other rules of the cap?

2023 NHL Salary Cup rules

Every NHL team has to be under $83.5 million, which most teams go right near, while there is also a cap floor. To try and make every team competitive and actually spend money, teams must spend at least $61 million for the 2023-24 NHL season.

As for what players count for each NHL's teams salary cap is a bit confusing at times.

Every player currently on the NHL roster is counting toward the salary cap, and their cap hit is the AAV (annual average value) of their deal. It is calculated by adding up the contract's total salary and signing bonuses, divided by the number of years in a contract. That number is then put toward the cap for every team on the roster.

Meanwhile, if a player is in the AHL on a one-way contract and has an AAV of $1.075 million and above, their salary also counts toward the cap despite not being on the NHL roster. Any injured players, not on LTIR, and suspended players also have their salary count against the cap.

As well, in trades, sometimes teams will retain salary, which usually comes into play at the trade deadline, as teams looking to add players for the playoff push don't have much cap space. Teams can only retain up to 50% of the players' salary and can only retain three salaries at a given time.

Can NHL teams go over the cap?

NHL teams cannot go over the salary cap during the regular season but can go over in the playoffs.

As we saw with the Vegas Golden Knights, Mark Stone was on long-term injured reserve all season, so his salary did not count against the cap. Yet, when the playoffs started, he was able to play and could suit up as the salary cap doesn't count during the playoffs.