NHL to increase cap

The team-by-team salary cap in the NHL is expected to go up to between US$46 million and $47.5 million next season.

"It's only the beginning of December but it appears two months in that revenues will be up," NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said after the first day of meetings at the board of governors at Palm Beach, Fla. "I do expect the cap to go up but I don't know by how much."

Sources indicated the league expects about 4-to-5% growth in revenues according to the early figures, which would translate to growth between $46 million and $47.5 million as the upper limit on the salary cap.

So despite lower attendance in some markets, the $44-million salary cap is not going down as was widely speculated.

"There's not going to be a dip," Ted Saskin, executive director of the NHL Players' Association, said after addressing NHL owners. "The cap's definitely going to increase based on everything I've seen so far.

"We're clearly going to have revenue growth," added Saskin.