Roster Construction – The league allows a team to carry between 20-23 players on their active roster.Team Strategy – Coming off of two consecutive Stanley Cup Championships and a birth in a third consecutive Stanley Cup Final, I am under the assumption that the Lightning will look to extend their championship window for the foreseeable future and will spend to the cap ceiling each season while obeying the following principles: core pieces are unlikely to be moved, secondary players are more likely to hit the open market and leave as free agents than be traded, players on rookie contracts will be given the opportunity to earn roster spots to help outweigh the salaries of the teams starts and future draft capital will be moved for immediate help around the trade deadline.I will assume the $91.4M ceiling a season earlier to match that and looking long-term, a modest 5% growth for the following five seasons through 2030-31. The NHL updated their projection this year with the debt being paid off a season prior and “significant” growth could come as soon as the 2025-26 season. Once the debt had been paid off, Frank projected a $91.4M ceiling (7% growth) in 2026-27. Frank Seravalli projected the cap increasing $1.0M per season for the next four seasons, resulting in a $85.5M ceiling in 2025-26. Salary Cap – It has been well documented in the 2021 off-season that the players owe the league $1B due to pandemic-related losses with the league’s 50/50 revenue split and there will be very minimum salary cap growth until this balance is paid off. A few high level notes before we get into the details: This is a very simplified version of the actual system the league uses to register salaries on a daily/seasonal basis but should provide an accurate template to what the team could look like in the coming seasons. I have taken the time to project the Tampa Bay Lightning’s roster construction and salary allocation for the next three full seasons. Any number of these moves can also have an impact on the salary cap in future years so teams must oversee the day to day transactions while also having an eye on the future. Every callup, demotion, injury and trade directly affects the current day salary cap and projected cap space at the end of the season. NHL teams are forced to manage their salary cap on a daily basis.
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