Kent Hughes is really positioned to hit a huge home run when the cap goes up

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Jeff Drouin
April 9, 2022 (1:07 PM)

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It was at the general managers meeting that the NHL announced an increase in the salary cap to about $1 million for next season and will rise to $82.5 million.

Well, a million is not a significant increase, but due to the pandemic, the league's finances have suffered greatly, but that could change in a few years.

As reported by Marco Normandin of Habsolumentfan.com, the cap is expected to increase significantly starting in the 2025-2026 season.

At least that's what Frank Seravalli of Daily Faceoff revealed.

And as fate would have it, that's also when the contracts of Christian Dvorak, Joel Armia, Jake Evans, Jeff Petry, David Savard and Shea Weber will end.

By then, it's a safe bet that some of these players will have left the Habs. But this period also coincides with the last year of Carey Price's contract and he could potentially have already stopped playing because of his knee injuries, he will be 37 years old.

Of course, it's not yet known how much money Kent Hughes will have under the salary cap, but it will also be interesting to see where the organization is in its rebuild. At that point, it will be possible for Hughes to get his hands on a star player with a big salary, either on the free agent market or through a trade.

What if 2025-2026 becomes a turning point, not only in the Hughes-Gorton era, but in the history of the Habs? Let's add that in the summer of 2025, there will be some very big names available on the free agent market. (Victor Hedman, Leon Draisaitl, Aaron Ekblad and many more!)

Of course. It's still too early to speculate on the future, but with the quality of some of the prospects in place, and considering that the likes of Suzuki, Caufield, Romanov, Guhle and company will have matured, the team could be considered a Stanley Cup contender at that point.