Islanders: Impact Of NHL Salary Cap Rising To $82.5 Million

Frank Seravalli did the darn thing again. This time, he found out that the salary cap is projected to rise to $82.5 million in the 2022-2023 season. We’ll be discussing how that impacts the New York Islanders for next season.

According to Cap Friendly, the Islanders were set to have $41.28 million in cap space for next year with the cap staying at $81.5 million, so we’ll bump that up by an extra $1 million to $42.28 million for the moment.

Unfortunately, that number isn’t exactly accurate. Since the signings of Casey Cizikas, Kyle Palmieri, and Zach Parise aren’t figured into this number, we have to do some projecting. Also, it’s probably fair to assume that Adam Pelech, Ilya Sorokin, and Anthony Beauvillier will have deals expanding past next year.

For this exercise, I’ll be using the following projections for the listed players above:

Adam Pelech – six-years $5 million AAV

Casey Cizikas – six years $2.5 million AAV

Kyle Palmieri – five years $4.75 million AAV

Travis Zajac – one-year $750,000

Zach Parise – one-year $750,000

Anthony Beauvillier – four-years $4.25 million AAV

 Ilya Sorokin – two-years $3 million AAV

How Much Space Do The Islanders Have?

This doesn’t include Michael Dal Colle or Anatoly Golyshev because not a ton of info has leaked on their deals yet but don’t expect them to be much more than league minimum for a year or two at absolute most.

Adding up all the multi-year deals, that’s a cap hit of $19.5 million. If you subtract that number from the projected cap space of $42.28 million that would leave the Islanders with $22.78 million to play with.

With Ryan Pulock, Leo Komarov, Cal Clutterbuck, Ross Johnston, and Thomas Hickey set to be UFA’s and Noah Dobson set to be an RFA some decisions would have to be made. Ryan Pulock should be extended for probably in the $7 million AAV range based on where the market is going.

As for Noah Dobson, it’s hard to say what he’ll get. Maybe a bridge deal similar to what Ryan Pulock got in 2018 (two-years $2 million AAV). Cal Clutterbuck might be the only other UFA who gets a deal so that they can keep the fourth line together.

Airing on the side of caution with Cal, let’s call it two years $1.5 million AAV. At that point, the Islanders would be sitting with $12.28 million left over. Don’t expect them to go nuts at that point because Mathew Barzal and Ilya Sorokin would need extensions that would likely cost a nice chunk of change.

Want your voice heard? Join the Eyes On Isles team!

Write for us!

Sure, a $1 million bump to the cap doesn’t sound like a lot, but it would be a big help for any team especially a team like the Islanders who could use all the assistance that they can get.