It's quite amazing to look at how much the NHL salary cap has risen in years past. Following the NHL lockout, the salary cap was a measly $39 million for the 2005-06 season. It has gone up every year since then, and it has especially taken off in the last couple years. For the 2011-12 season, the cap was set at $64.3 million, and now, for the 2012-13 season, it has been increased to a whopping $70.2 million, according to a report.
Salary cap will be $70.2 million.
— Nick Cotsonika (@cotsonika) June 27, 2012
It's very possible the salary cap will drop for 2013-14 given the expiration of the CBA and the labor talks that will take place this summer, but teams will have a lot of money to spend this offseason. The Detroit Red Wings are among the teams with lots of room to work with, as they have a total of $24,032,955 in cap space, according to CapGeek.com. They didn't use all of their cap space last season, but with a need to make some splashes this year, chances are they will not be hesitant to spend some serious money.
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