Bettman and the NHL Impose Penalty on Hughes and the Canadiens

Here is an important news for Kent Hughes and Jeff Gorton, as they look ahead to the summer transactions and the 2024 NHL draft.

Every season, players may earn performance bonuses according to their contracts. These bonuses are accounted for in the following season and count against the team's salary cap. For the 2024-2025 season, as reported by Frank Seravalli from Dailyfaceoff, six teams will start the next campaign with over $1M deducted, including the Montreal Canadiens.

The Habs among teams penalized on their salary cap for next season!

In total, there are 11 teams, possibly 13 depending on the playoff bonuses, that will see their salary cap reduced by some dollars.


Dailyfaceoff - Sources: Oilers, Stars and Capitals among 11 teams with record salary cap overages for 2024-25

Here they are:

Edmonton Oilers: $3,450,000
Dallas Stars: $2,579,261
Washington Capitals: $2,040,000
Los Angeles Kings: $1,850,000
New Jersey Devils: $1,538,897
Montreal Canadiens: $1,007,500
Ottawa Senators: $850,000
New York Rangers: $512,500
Minnesota Wild: $425,000
Philadelphia Flyers: $245,000
Boston Bruins: $50,000
(Florida Panthers): ($500,000)
(Carolina Hurricanes): ($50,450)

The Panthers can still give $500K to Kyle Okposo if they win the Stanley Cup this spring, while the Canes will owe $57,500 to Jackson Blake if he plays a total of 20 games this season, including the regular season and playoffs.

As you can see, the CH will have to deduct about $1.007M next season for signing bonuses. These bonuses are, as Jean-Francois C. reminds us on the X platform, as follows:

Juraj Slafkovsky: 500k (Having scored 20 goals and ice time)
Kaiden Guhle: 212.5k TOI (ice time)
Jayden Struble: 57.5k GP (games played)
Justin Barron: 212.5k TOI (ice time)
Monahan: 15k (having played 26 games)


Ultimately, if we remove the performance bonuses, contract buyouts, and retained salaries (Jeff Petry: $2,343,750 and Jake Allen: $1.925M), the CH will start the next campaign with $82,423,750 if we rely on a salary cap of $87.7M. That's nearly $5.27M of loss that Kent Hughes will have to manage to prepare for the next campaign.

According to the excellent site Capfriendly, the CH already has $77,563,750 committed for next season on 19 contracts. There is therefore around $4.86M left for the GM to sign three players, unless he manages to trade some salary. He also has the option of placing Carey Price's salary ($10.5M), on the LTIR, something he has not done in 2023-2024.