NHL fans hoping there will be no strike nor lockout when the collective bargaining agreement between the League and the Players’ Association expires in September 2026 are getting some good news. The sides are expected to begin talks on a new CBA in early 2025, NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman said Tuesday in New York
If that isn’t good enough, Bettman expressed optimism about getting a deal done well before the deadline.
“We will probably begin having more discussions with the Players’ Association after the first of the year,” Bettman said at the NHL Board of Governors meeting. “We’ve said that it could be as early as November, but I think everybody’s still got some homework to do. You know that the union’s on their fall tour, so no big deal. It’s just, I think, in terms of timing, that’s probably the most realistic. Which is still well, well in advance, and we think we’re collectively, in terms of the relationship, in a good place.”
NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh recently began his tour of all 32 teams to better understand what the players want in the next CBA. It will be the first one negotiated by Walsh, who took over for Don Fehr in February 2023.
The NHL has had three major labor stoppages under Bettman, who became commissioner in February 1993 and is the longest-serving top executive in League history.
A 104-day lockout by the owners in the fall of 1994 resulted in the season being shortened to 48 games. Ten years later, the entire 2004-05 season was wiped out by a lockout after the owners and players couldn’t agree on a new CBA. The 2012-13 season was also reduced to 48 games by a four-month lockout.
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NHL salary cap should rise to $92.5 million next season
Bettman said the NHL salary cap for the 2025-26 season is expected to be around $92.5 million, which would be a $4.5 million bump from this season’s $88 million cap; however, he said it’s “way preliminary.” Bettman has repeatedly said the game has never been stronger; revenue reportedly reached a record $6.2 billion U.S. in 2023-24, the League played to more than 97 percent capacity and franchise values have soared.
Among the topics the owners and players will discuss for the next CBA is an adjustment to the schedule. Reducing the number of preseason games and expanding the 82-game regular season is “on a list of things to think about” for the owners ahead of the next CBA, Bettman said.
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One topic that “never came up in any form” at the meetings was expansion. However, Bettman noted that “there are a number of places that have expressed interest that talk to us.”
“We feel no compulsion to [expand] right now,” the commissioner said. “We just came off our most successful season in our history. We’ve got collective bargaining to deal with. We’ve got new media arrangements to do in Canada. If something came in and checked all the boxes, and we felt that it might make sense, we might consider it but we’re not there right now.”
The NHL’s last two expansion additions have been major successes.
The Vegas Golden Knights joined the league in 2017 and the Seattle Kraken in 2021. Vegas advanced to the Stanley Cup Final in 2017-18 and won the Cup in 2023, its sixth season in the League. The Kraken qualified for the playoffs in 2022-23, their second season, after improving by 40 points from 2021-22. They eliminated the defending champion Colorado Avalanche in the opening round.