Teams plan for it to rise every year because it's tied to league-wide revenue, which had kept going up. But the pandemic slammed the brakes on that, so everyone still has "only" $81.5 million US to spend on players this season. The cap tells us how much the league will allow teams to spend on players. That means free agents could be seeing fewer long-term, big-money offers — especially if they're not elite players. 3:56 There are plenty of big names available this year when free agency officially opens, but Rob Pizzo says plenty of teams may have new goalies when next season starts.

Source: CBC News October 08, 2020 21:00 UTC