TSN's Hockey Insiders have the latest on the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement, the length of contracts moving forward, a playoff salary cap, the elimination of deferred compensation deals, and more.

New CBA still being finalized

GINO REDA: Back with the Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger.

‘Not quite done yet’, Pierre, is that the best way to characterize the status of the new CBA the league and the players’ association are hoping to roll out on Friday?

PIERRE LeBRUN: Yeah, they’re almost there, Gino. As of Thursday afternoon, they remain one key issue that the National Hockey League and the NHL Players’ Association were hoping to agree to and get this thing past the finish line by Thursday night so that they can be in a position Friday morning to go ahead with that news conference. 

I know from speaking to sources involved in this that they felt that news conference would likely happen. They don’t see this as an issue that would blow up this whole thing, that they are pretty much there.

But, they do have to iron this out and Marty Walsh and Ron Hainsey of the NHLPA were flying in to LA on Thursday afternoon to meet with Bill Daly and Gary Bettman so they can get this across the finish line.

Maximum contract lengths to be reduced by one year

REDA: One very significant change the two sides have agreed on is the length of contracts moving forward. 

What can you tell us on that front, C.J.?

CHRIS JOHNSTON: Yes, specifically with the maximum length. It’s going to be reduced by a year to seven years when you’re signing with your own team and six years when you’re signing as a free agent somewhere else.

I think what’s significant about that is, obviously, it’s a little more controlled in the system, but this CBA is not kicking in until September 2026, Gino. So that means that players that are hitting free agency next week, they can still sign an eight-year deal. They’ll be the dinosaurs once this new CBA is put into effect because they’ll be the last players with that kind of contract. 

In these next few days, we’ll perhaps get our last player or two that gets an eight-year extension done with his team, because as part of this new CBA, it’s going to be a little bit more restrictive moving forward.

NHL plugging LTIR loophole

REDA: For years now, a number of teams have taken advantage of a loophole in the salary cap that allowed clubs to go way over the cap come the postseason.

Are the league and PA about to plug that hole moving forward, Dregs?

DARREN DREGER: Yeah, sure sounds like it, Gino. 

I’m looking forward to seeing the inner workings of what that means, the language written, in the new collective bargaining agreement that illustrates what a salary cap in the Stanley Cup playoffs actually is going to look like, because you’re right, there’s been this longstanding issue as you relate LTIR in the regular season and there is no salary cap in the postseason. 

Teams, on an annual basis, have found a way to use that as a strength, using the system of the existing CBA. But, what we’re understanding moving forward is there will be some sort of cap compliance for every game played in the regular season and the postseason moving forward.

But, we need to read it and understand it.

Signing bonus payments to be restricted to 60 per cent

JOHNSTON: A few other little smaller tweaks that are coming, Dregs, to the contractual status, one thing is deferred compensation deals are just going to be eliminated entirely.

It’s only been in the last year or so that we saw those really go into effect. Jaccob Slavin, Seth Jarvis in Carolina, Jake McCabe in Toronto, well, those deals will quickly be wiped away and then there’s going to be some new restrictions, as well, placed on how much money can be put into a signing bonus as part of a deal.

In the past, some players, the top players, have gotten, like, 95 per cent in signing bonus payments. That’s going to be restricted at 60 per cent in this new agreement.

NHL implementing 84-game regular season

REDA: Hey, listen, when the league does drop the puck with the new CBA a year from this fall, we’ll be playing an 84-game schedule for the first time since the ’93-’94 season.

How is that going to work, Pierre?

LeBRUN: Well, it’s going to work by reducing the preseason. We’ve talked about this possibility back in March on Insider Trading, that the two sides were talking about this and now it will be part of the CBA starting in ’26.

And what’s going to happen is they’re going to start the regular season in late September. Now, before you get excited and think that means they’re going to end the season earlier, they will not.

They’re starting in late September so that they can get the Cup awarded by June 21, get a draft in the last weekend of June, and get free agency not delayed and not start later than July 1, can you imagine?

So it’s about stretching out the regular season. Extra games, extra games within the division, by the way, is the plan.

But a shorter preseason is the key for why you can drop the puck in late September come September ’26.

REDA: But still, no early summers.

They are the Insiders, Chris Johnston, Pierre LeBrun and Darren Dreger.