Players on one-way contracts make the same salary in the big leagues as they do in the minors.

That’s resulted in a substantial loss of income in a finite career for many of those 29 affected. But the players care, and the NHLPA should care, and every agent should care. “I don’t really think (NHL commissioner) Gary Bettman cares whether a team has 21 or 23 players on their roster. “For the current CBA to not contemplate almost four years with a relatively flat cap, that teams would be in this situation shows a tremendous lack of foresight,” prominent player agent Allan Walsh said. Two years ago, that number was just 10 teams with only 15 vacancies. Last season, 15 teams submitted opening rosters with fewer than 23 players, resulting in 25 unfilled spots throughout the league. In all, that’s 29 players out of the NHL who in the past would have been in it. That’s the highest total since the pandemic.Įight of those teams had rosters of 21 players or even 20 - which has typically been the bare minimum teams could carry. Twenty teams set their season-opening roster with fewer than 23 players on it, the maximum allowed under NHL rules. The Oilers were one of four teams - along with the Vancouver Canucks, Los Angeles Kings and Ottawa Senators - that were unable to dress 18 skaters for their season-opening games.ĭepth players are the most affected group.

Erne had to wait for Niemelainen to be healthy enough to be waived for the purposes of a demotion to the minors before he could put pen to paper and officially join the Oilers. The Oilers were forced to start the season with a 21-man roster due to cap constraints and were required to have injured defensemen Mattias Ekholm and Markus Niemelainen on it. The upside is there’s 10 to 15 teams that are in the same boat as we are.” “When the cap doesn’t move, you’re forced to decide which player you want to keep.

“My first year here (in Edmonton) in ’19-20, we did a 23-man roster - and we saved enough money for two call-ups,” Oilers GM Ken Holland said. That’s made it challenging for NHL general managers to put together functional rosters since the pandemic. The salary cap increased by just $1 million to $83.5 million for the 2023-24 season, representing the second straight increase of that amount after staying flat for the previous two offseasons. Though Erne managed to earn a two-way contract with an NHL minimum salary of $775,000, that he had to wait until a few days after the regular season commenced to sign it only further underscored a leaguewide problem.

Re-drafting the NHL class of 2020: Stützle goes No.

Nhl 17 classic roster