Montreal Canadiens fans are reminded every day how lucky they are to have players willing to fit within a certain salary structure. With massive contracts handed out all offseason, including record-breaking deals for Leo Carlsson, Macklin Celebrini, and Cale Makar, the Canadiens have players locked into long-term deals that don't even rival those contracts.
Elliotte Friedman sent shockwaves through the hockey world on his most recent 32 Thoughts podcast episode when he revealed the projections presented at the Board of Governors meetings in New York this week. With the rising salary cap one of the hottest topics at the meetings, the league reportedly said to expect a $127.5 million cap during the 2028-29 season, a $14 million jump from the 2027-28 projections and the largest jump in the salary cap era.
The former top line of Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield, and Juraj Slafkovsky each make annual values in the $7.6 million to $7.875 million range. Ivan Demidov's new $9.15 million annual deal kicks in next season, which went above the structure but had to be done with the growing cap hits. Even his deal is a steal compared to Carlsson making $18 million annually or the deals recently handed out to Cutter Gauthier and Adam Fantilli.
Then the Canadiens have both Noah Dobson and Lane Hutson under contract until the 2032-33 and 2033-34 seasons, sitting at a combined average of $18.35 million, which is over $2 million below what Cale Makar will make per season and what players like Quinn Hughes and Matthew Schaefer are bound to make.
Canadiens' salary cap situation keeps getting better
This means that the Canadiens will get two seasons with an elevated salary cap before Nick Suzuki's contract expires at the end of the 2029-30 season. A year later, Cole Caufield will be up for an extension. At the same time, the pending arrivals of Michael Hage, David Reinbacher, Jacob Fowler, Gleb Pugachyov, and Alexander Zharovsky could also factor into long-term extensions around that time, depending on how they pan out.
Nevertheless, the Canadiens likely won't be worrying about a salary cap crunch anytime soon. Without factoring in other deals they make in the meantime, they could have over $46 million to spend for the 2028-29 season, with their core locked into deals that aren't due to expire for at least two more seasons.
If fans are looking for a window to win the 25th championship, it's hard to argue that the two seasons after the salary cap spike aren't the green-light zone for the Canadiens. If you want to look far ahead, the 2028 offseason includes UFA names like Connor McDavid, Auston Matthews, and Zach Werenski. If one of those players reaches free agency and they're looking for the best chance to win, Montreal is probably it.
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