NHL Salary Cap: Leafs, Stars, Knights All Over the Ceiling

Three NHL teams are still sitting above the salary cap with training camp about six weeks out.

The Maple Leafs, Stars and Golden Knights all have more money committed than the $104 million ceiling allows, per figures from PuckPedia. Clubs are permitted to run 10 percent over the cap during the offseason, so nobody is breaking a rule yet. That grace period ends when teams submit opening-night rosters in late September.

Toronto is $2.75 million over. John Chayka spent the summer reshaping a group that missed the playoffs for the first time in a decade, and the bill came due. The Leafs are also carrying a full 23-man roster right now.

Their easiest out is Max Domi. He had back surgery in late May that ran into complications, and the team has him out indefinitely with a re-evaluation set for the start of camp. Sliding his $3.75 million hit onto long-term injured reserve erases the overage on its own.

Dallas created its problem on purpose. The Stars re-signed Jason Robertson to a one-year, $12 million deal and landed $1.36 million above the cap with 22 active players and Tyler Seguin on injured reserve.

PuckPedia laid out the math the night the deal went through:

Stars general manager Jim Nill addressed the squeeze himself a day later. Watch his explanation of how Dallas plans to handle it:

Vegas looks worst on paper at $8.61 million over, and it has the cleanest fix of the three. The Golden Knights moved Alex Pietrangelo back to LTIR on July 1, with GM Kelly McCrimmon saying his playing status is not expected to change. That $8.8 million in relief covers the gap with room left over.

Lyle Richardson flagged all three situations Friday, citing Louis-Andre Lariviere of La Page Sportive. The cap is climbing fast enough that this kind of crowding is going to keep happening, which is part of why deals like Macklin Celebrini’s are getting shorter.

Camps open in September. Toronto and Dallas are the two that still owe the league a paperwork move.