Five teams with intriguing salary-cap decisions upcoming

The 2026-27 NHL season is still about six weeks away, but after an off-season of big moves and market-setting deals, it’s hard not to look even further into the future.

Which teams are heading into a cap crunch next summer? Who’s sitting pretty and under budget? How much will the game’s next big stars command on their next deals, and what might that mean for teams’ second-best scorers?

With all that in mind, we’re looking at a handful of intriguing franchises — each facing different questions and approaches to salary cap management — in the year ahead, and beyond.

The Ducks couldn’t afford to lose Leo Carlsson to the Philadelphia Flyers, but now that they’ve signed the 21-year-old to a five-year pact to match Philly’s offer at a whopping $18 million a year, well… can they afford much else? Carlsson’s contract changes a lot of things in Anaheim. It also serves as a harsh reminder for executives everywhere that waiting to sign your young stars can be a costly gamble.

While the Ducks’ cap situation is far from dire — their $9 million in cap space at the moment is 10th most league-wide — it is complicated. That’s because their 2025-26 leading scorer, Cutter Gauthier , is still without a contract. Gauthier led the Ducks in goals (41) and points (69). That breakout campaign couldn’t have come at a better time for the 22-year-old restricted free agent.

Salary cap help is on the way — the Ducks will have nearly $13 million coming off the books when the contracts of veterans Chris Kreider and Alex Killorn are up next summer, and the NHL’s $9-million cap increase will ease the impending crunch — but what happens in the meantime? And what will Gauthier’s next deal mean for next-in-line Beckett Sennecke , who hits extension eligibility next July? Every move from this point on must be made with those questions in mind. Interesting times ahead in Anaheim.

GM Kent Hughes doesn’t procrastinate. He’s done a masterful job of locking up his core early, and that has Montreal sitting pretty cap-wise as they enter their prime window of contention. Buying in early on forwards Nick Suzuki, Cole Caufield and Juraj Slafkovsky, all three of whom come in under $8 million for at least the next four years, clearly set the tone for the team’s early contract extension for Ivan Demidov .

Demidov will become the club’s top-earning forward next summer when his $9.15-million AAV hits the books — a deal that will surely look like a bargain very soon. (Defenceman Noah Dobson is the team’s highest-paid player, at $9.5 million annually.) Last fall’s extension for cornerstone D-man Lane Hutson at $8.85 million is already a steal.

All that cap certainty affords Hughes some flexibility in the year(s) ahead. After a quiet off-season on the open market, does Hughes have a big swing in store?

A one-year deal for Jason Robertson solved the Stars’ most pressing issue ahead of this season, but did nothing to quiet any speculation about the 45-goal-scorer’s future in Texas.