The NHL salary cap’s upper limit will be $75 million during the 2017-18, the league and the NHLPA announced today. The lower limit is set at $55.4 million.
With the adjusted salary cap for next season, and including Kevin Labanc and Timo Meier’s contracts, the Sharks have $14,668,333 in salary cap space to sign three more forwards. Patrick Marleau and Joe Thornton remain unsigned as unrestricted free agents, while Chris Tierney is set to become a restricted free agent on July 1.
San Jose will have additional salary cap space, depending on the results of Wednesday’s Expansion Draft. They’ll need to sign an additional player, but will have as little as $625,000 or as much as $4,850,000 in additional salary cap space if a player currently under contract is selected on Wednesday.
The increased salary cap provides additional flexibility for General Manager Doug Wilson as he builds this year’s roster. Wilson told reporters last week that part of negotiations with Thornton and Marleau “[depended] on where the overall contract is going to be,” and the additional space could make conceivably make it easier to bring the two back.
Assuming the salary cap stays flat in 2018-19, there’s also more space for Marc-Edouard Vlasic, Martin Jones, and Tomas Hertl to sign contract extensions, which the trio can sign as early as July 1. The Sharks are currently in extension talks with Jones and Vlasic, and Wilson said after Sharks’ first round loss to Edmonton that it was “extremely important” to extend the two this summer.
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