How will the NHL’s new CBA affect the Knights?

The NHL and the NHL Players Association have a new collective bargaining agreement. And several of the details should have a direct impact on the Golden Knights.

The NHL and NHLPA ratified a four-year contract July 8 that will go into effect for the 2026-27 season. The deal ensures labor peace in the NHL for the foreseeable future.

There will be several notable changes under the new CBA, like shorter preseasons, longer regular seasons and no more dress codes. There are also a few tweaks that will change how the Knights can operate after being one of the NHL’s most successful organizations the past eight seasons.

Here are a few ways the new CBA will affect them:

Schedule change

The Knights, like all teams, will work under a much different calendar starting in 2026-27.

Training camps will be shortened from 20 days to 13. Clubs will be capped at four preseason games instead of seven.

The regular season, on the other hand, will be expanded by two games to create an 84-game slate. The NHL previously had 84-game regular seasons in 1992-93 and 1993-94, but 82 games has been the standard since in years not affected by labor disputes or COVID-19.

LTIR changes/playoff salary cap

One thing the new CBA addresses is the way the Knights and other Stanley Cup winners have used long-term injured reserve to give themselves extra salary cap flexibility.

Several recent champions — the 2015 Chicago Blackhawks, 2021 Tampa Bay Lightning, 2023 Knights and 2025 Florida Panthers — have placed key players on LTIR to give themselves the ability to make more in-season additions. The injured players have then typically returned early in the playoffs, when the salary cap is no longer in effect.

That’s given teams the ability to ice postseason lineups that would not be cap compliant in the regular season, though the Knights would have been the entire 2023 playoffs.

Things will change under the new CBA.

Playoff lineups will need to be cap compliant starting in 2027. Teams will have to submit a roster with 18 skaters and two goaltenders to the league on game days that fits under the cap.

How clubs use LTIR will also be different.

Currently, teams that place a player on LTIR are allowed to exceed the salary cap by the player’s cap hit. That means when the Knights put captain Mark Stone on LTIR after he underwent back surgery in 2023, they were able to go over the cap by $9.5 million. That helped the team acquire left wing Ivan Barbashev, center Teddy Blueger and goaltender Jonathan Quick at that year’s trade deadline.

Moving forward, teams will only be able to exceed the cap by the average player’s salary the previous year. That was $3.82 million in 2024-25, according to the website Puckpedia. Teams will only be able to exceed the cap by the injured player’s full cap hit if the player has been ruled out for the rest of the season.

The NHL and NHLPA will observe how the new playoff salary cap works the first two seasons of the CBA, then the two sides will be allowed to discuss any revisions that might be necessary.

Salary retention

Another way the Knights have been able to squeeze more talent onto their roster in recent years is by having a third party retain salary for them.

For example, defenseman Noah Hanifin had a $4.95 million cap hit when the team acquired him from the Calgary Flames in March 2024. The Knights had the Flames retain 50 percent — or $2.475 million — of Hanifin’s cap hit. They then gave the Philadelphia Flyers a fifth-round pick to retain 50 percent of what was left over.

That meant Hanifin’s cap hit with the Knights was $1.238 million when he first arrived.

Two teams are no longer allowed to retain money on the same contract in quick succession under the new CBA. There will instead be a 75 regular-season day waiting period between retentions, which will change how clubs try to add players around the trade deadline.

Contract term limits

Another tweak that has implications for the Knights is reduced maximum lengths on contracts.

Teams will soon only be allowed to offer their players seven-year contract extensions, down from eight. Free agents will be allowed to sign six-year deals, down from seven.

Center Jack Eichel became eligible to sign an extension July 1, meaning the Knights can still ink him to an eight-year deal through June 30, 2026. Eichel could be one of the last NHL players to sign an eight-year contract.

The Knights have already given out one eight-year deal this offseason while they still can. Right wing Mitch Marner received a $96 million contract after joining the organization through a sign-and-trade with the Toronto Maple Leafs.

New threads

The Knights may no longer arrive to games in style after this season.

The NHL is relaxing its dress code in the new CBA. Players will no longer be required to arrive and leave games wearing a suit and tie.

The change could give players more of an opportunity to show off their fashion sense in the future.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.