Business is booming for the NHL, another healthy salary cap increase goes into effect at the start of the league year on July 1st.
The Penguins have angled themselves into a ton of cap flexibility, entering draft week and the start of free agency with currently over $45 million in cap space, according to CapWages. That’s the second highest amount of space in the league at this time.
That can lead to the question, especially with rumors lingering about potentially bringing in Darnell Nurse and his large
cap hit, about how easy or difficult it may be for the Pens to meet the minimum cap floor.
In 2026-27, the cap ceiling is $104.5 million and the floor is $76.9m. It won’t be difficult at all for Pittsburgh to meet that floor, per CapWages they already have $58.8 million on the books, so they need to add at least $18.1 million.
That $58.8 million currently constitutes:
- 10 forwards for $35.9 million total (Crosby, Malkin, Rust, Rakell, Novak, Lizotte, Dewar, Brazeau, Soderblom, Kindel)
- 5 defensemen for $22.9m (Karlsson, Letang, Girard, Wotherspoon, Solovyov)
- 0 goalies
- 1 salary buried in the AHL (Graves)
It won’t be a problem to get to the floor, the cap number could easily increase depending on how much of the $3.5 million in bonus money that Evgeni Malkin will earn that will get tacked onto the current amount. Malkin will earn $500k if he plays half the season (42 games) and $500k more if he appears in 75% of the season (63 games). He would also earn $1m in a bonus if the Pens make the playoffs in 2027, with an additional $500k for every playoff round won. Kindel also could add to the figure by earning performance bonus money from his entry level contract.
Pittsburgh still has to tighten up restricted free agent Egor Chinakhov, who will be looking at a healthy raise from the $2.1 million cap hit he had last season after producing 36 points in 43 games with the Pens. Whether that is a short-term bridge deal with a smaller cap hit or a massive long-term deal worth big bucks remain to be seen. The Pens also need a new contract for Arturs Silovs and will likely have to find players via trade or free agency to replace roster members like Anthony Mantha and Ryan Shea. Several other younger players will be candidates to move up from the AHL and take a spot and add to the totals, though all have relatively low cap hits.
So ultimately, the Pens don’t need to take on a contract like Darnell Nurse or over-pay someone like Shea (who could command $4 million on the open market) purely to hit the $76.9m figure for next season. Even though the team hasn’t spent a lot, they’re not far off from the floor as of now – especially after signing Malkin to a contract that could easily see him count $7.5m against the cap if he plays 63+ games and the team makes the playoffs next year. Add in what will be a healthy contract for Chinakhov, a couple of goalies and some more depth players and they’ll just about be there even before the inevitable new players start joining the fray.
The really interesting part, as we noted recently, is the picture in 2027-28. The Pens currently only have seven players under contract for the next season after this coming one, and only for a $26.2 million cap commitment. Now, players like Chinakhov, Silovs (and maybe Sidney Crosby) could start to add to that figure very quickly. The main takeaway is that courtesy of signing virtually no players to contracts of 3+ years in the last few years (save Blake Lizotte as the lone exception to date), the Pens have maximum flexibility over the short, mid and long-term aspects of their cap situation. If/when players like Crosby and Malkin retire, the team is setup to build back from just about scratch – should they stick to the current course. Else, we could see a strategy that brings in veterans for a few years to add to the totals and help ice a roster that will be near the floor. The road is wide open for whatever wheeling and dealing that Kyle Dubas and co. want to travel.
Either way, with currently $45m of cap space for 2026-27, the Pens have a lot of work to do. Most of the flurry of the NHL offseason is coming up with the draft and moves made around the start of free agency on July 1. Of course, this year with big names like Brady Tkachuk, Bowen Byram, Jordan Kyrou and William Eklund already traded in the past few days, that exciting time of frequent roster movement has already begun across the league. Pittsburgh is ready to take their actions soon enough and figure out exactly how their roster and cap situation will look for next year.
