The NHL and their players have agreed to a new CBA to begin in September 2026. But that wasn’t quick enough of a start date for some of the changes and the two sides have agreed to make a variety of the changes begin a year earlier with some good old fashioned “rolling implementation” of key areas.
This first one is interesting, and potentially harmful to the Penguins. Other NHL teams can’t accrue space on a daily basis any longer in order to have plenty of room to add a high-priced veteran near or at the trade deadline any longer. That’s bad news for teams looking to fit in, say a Bryan Rust or Rickard Rakell, they’ve have to do so at the full cap hit value, barring any trade retentions. Oh, and retaining just got more difficult since it can only be done one time, starting now.
These rule tweaks all but assure that if/when Pittsburgh trades players like Erik Karlson, or Rust and Rakell that they can expect to have to bring back some salary from over-priced players from the other team to help balance the salary situations out. There was already a good chance of that happening, but these changes will make it tougher to do business and teams have to get even more creative to have the contenders stay compliant.
It’s not all bad news. The NHL is going to negotiate with the CHL about moving the upcoming changes ahead of schedule for the rules regarding 19-year olds that are currently blocked from playing in the AHL. According to PuckPedia, that’s not been agreed to or finalized yet, but still are in the works.
Should those negotiations go well, the Penguins would have the option of sending Harrison Brunicke to Wilkes-Barre for 2025-26, instead of back to his junior team in Kamloops.
Starting in September 2026, teams will be limited to signing their own players for a maximum of seven years, down from the current eight. This matter shouldn’t effect the Penguins too much, though if they wanted they could negotiate Rutger McGroarty an eight-year deal if it can be signed from July 1 – Sept 15, 2026, or could sign Ville Koivunen for eight years any time up until the new limit takes effect. Probably no big deal there, but something to moderately consider perhaps if they team wanted to bring a young player’s cap hit down a little on a super-long contract.
Overall, nothing too terribly Earth-shaking for a team like the Pens, but their players will get to dress a little more comfortably and now the clock is starting for which player gets the first wine/spirits endorsement.
