MANALAPAN, Florida — One day after Ottawa Senators owner Michael Andlauer told The Athletic that unfounded trade talk around his captain Brady Tkachuk amounted to “soft tampering,” NHL commissioner Gary Bettman declined an opportunity to weigh in on the matter.
“I’ve been in board meetings for the last two days,” Bettman said Tuesday at the conclusion of the NHL’s Board Governors meetings. “I’ve heard the general. I don’t have enough specifics to make any sort of comment.”
Andlauer was upset about a report in the New York Post last Friday that said the Rangers were targeting Tkachuk as a trade target. Why that irked him is because the 25-year-old forward is under contract in Ottawa for three more seasons beyond this one and, according to Andlauer, hasn’t once been included in formal trade discussions with rival teams.
He views the speculation as destabilizing for both the Senators and Tkachuk personally.
The Rangers vehemently denied any wrongdoing in the matter, calling it an “irresponsible accusation,” and Daly came away from a private discussion with Andlauer after Monday’s story broke believing that there was no basis to open a tampering investigation.
Bettman confirmed Tuesday that the NHL isn’t currently involved in any ongoing tampering investigations.
The topic has been a simmering discussion point in league circles dating back to July 1, when some alarm bells were raised by how quickly some free agents signed with new teams and how they publicly framed their negotiations in media interviews afterward.
The NHL reminded general managers about the potential for significant penalties if an individual or organization is found to have tampered during a meeting in Toronto last month and again in a memo that was circulated to every team on Nov. 25.
“I don’t like tampering, and obviously if somebody alleges tampering and it can be proven, there are consequences,” Bettman said. “But I’m not weighing in on any particular cases right now. When you have rules, you’d like the rules to be followed.”
There is an appetite among some GMs to bring back a negotiating window before free agency opens as a way to better control discussions with players on expiring contracts, but that would require signoff from the NHL Players’ Association.
Asked if he expects free agency to be conducted any differently next July 1, Bettman said: “We’ll have to see. That’s something we’ll discuss with the union.”
Projected cap
NHL teams normally leave this Board of Governors meeting with a projected salary cap number for the next season.
Which is crucial for offseason planning.
What NHL owners got instead Tuesday as the Board of Governors meeting wrapped up was two different scenarios:
1) The cap for next season could be around $92.5 million (up from the current $88 million), which is the basic five percent increase stipulated by the current CBA. Or 2) The cap could be higher depending on CBA talks with the NHLPA and whether there’s joint interest in building in a “phase-in” to a higher cap.
Hockey-related revenue is expected to jump significantly over the next few years, so the idea of a “phase-in” approach would be mitigate against one massive jump in two years.
“Revenue continues to grow,” Bettman said. “We’re projecting, in native currency, over $7 billion (combined U.S. and Canadian currency), probably $6.6 billion U.S., depending again on the Canadian dollar as we convert to hockey-related revenues, which is done in U.S. currency.
“The cap, under the current guidelines in the collective bargaining agreement, would go up five percent. As we look at revenues, we’re going to have discussions with the Players’ Association about escrow levels and whether or not the cap can or should be tweaked a little more on an ongoing basis. But that’s something that we have to really work out with the Players’ Association, and we’re having those discussions.”
As one might imagine, that update received great interest from NHL owners. Notably, Minnesota Wild owner Craig Leipold and his GM Bill Guerin were in the meetings Tuesday, and they just so happen to have a rather important contract negotiation upcoming this summer with Hart Trophy candidate Kirill Kaprizov, who has one more year on his contract after this season and can sign an extension this summer.
“I’m sure it’s going through Billy Guerin’s head quite a bit,” a smiling Leipold told The Athletic on Tuesday. “He’s a special player and we know we’re going to have to step up and re-sign him, and we will. The fact that the cap is going up will probably make his job (Guerin) a little bit easier. But yeah, it’s going to be a challenging summer for us.”
And, of course, the best player in the world, Connor McDavid, can also sign an extension this summer with the Edmonton Oilers one year ahead of hitting free agency. The cap number will be pretty relevant in those discussions as well.
CBA talks
The league updated owners on upcoming CBA negotiations with the NHLPA, with Bettman giving a more precise target date for commencing talks.
“It’ll be sometime in February,” Bettman said. “But we meet with them on an ongoing basis. We had a meeting with them last week, and we’re going to probably have a meeting with them again in a week or so.
“So this is more free-flowing than I think you may all be focused on. You know, collective bargaining sounds formal and technical and legal, but the most important aspects of any collective bargaining agreement is the relationship. And I think the relationship is in a good place.”
The current CBA doesn’t expire until September 2026, but there are signals from both sides about a possible early extension.
“I don’t want to prognosticate on collective bargaining,” Bettman cautioned. “We have a very open, constructive relationship with the Players’ Association right now. I find working with Marty Walsh and Ron Hainsey (NHLPA leaders) very constructive, very professional, very cordial. And so, we’re not going to get ahead of ourselves and prognosticate what’s going to happen.
“Although we hope to do this as quickly and seamlessly as possible.”
Part of that, Bettman said, is that he respects the fact the NHLPA has to make sure it has fully and properly informed its 800-odd players, which is what the NHLPA has done during its fall tour around the league.
The commissioner said after the Oct. 1 Board of Governors meeting in New York that in an ideal world, there would be a CBA extension done by the June Stanley Cup Final. He wasn’t ready to double down on that Tuesday but said he certainly hopes it’s done in a timely fashion.
Bettman said the owners’ executive committee and collective bargaining committee met Monday, “a joint meeting where we went into a little more detail on collective bargaining to make sure we’re focused on what they want us focused on. I believe we are.”
Again, good vibes all around so far, in terms of avoiding a lockout.
Olympic participation
Now that the 4 Nations Face-Off rosters have been unveiled, the anticipation for February’s return to best-on-best international competition has grown considerably.
The four-team event featuring the U.S., Canada, Sweden and Finland grew out of the desire from the sport’s top players to get back in that kind of environment for the first time since the 2016 World Cup of Hockey. The Feb. 12 to 20 tournament is meant to whet the appetite before a return to the Winter Olympics in 2026.
“It’s almost hard to fathom that (the players) haven’t played in something like this,” said Steve Mayer, the NHL’s chief content officer. “To give them a taste of it before they go to the Olympics is good. I loved the reaction from last week of watching the players (get named to rosters). I think it’s so genuine how meaningful this is for them.”
As for what they’ll be playing for?
Mayer says the winning team will get a trophy and the winning players will be given medals. There is also going to be a cash prize, although the exact amount hasn’t yet been set.
The 4 Nations Face-Off will effectively kick off the next wave of international competition. Beyond the 2026 Olympics, a World Cup is being planned for 2028 and would then be followed by the 2030 Olympics.
Meanwhile, the NHL believes it is close to finalizing an agreement with the International Olympic Committee and International Ice Hockey Federation to officially send its players to Milan, Italy for the 2026 games.
“I remain confident we’ll get there soon,” said Daly.
Schedule change
Owners were briefed on the potential for a schedule format change as part of the next CBA but with the caveat that it depends greatly on talks with the NHLPA.
So, no, Bettman wasn’t ready to say whether there’s a schedule change coming quite yet.
“If we’re going to make adjustments, that would be something we’d have to discuss with the Players’ Association,” Bettman said. “I don’t really think it’s productive to have the discussions in advance of the discussions we want to have.”
The concept being discussed is reducing the preseason and expanding the regular season to 84 games. And yes, within that, there’s the potential to start the season earlier and award the Stanley Cup earlier in June.
The subject itself seemed to irritate the commissioner.
“There’s a certain amount of competition that has to be played and you need a certain amount of days to do it,” he said. “If we started in August, which I’m not recommending, we could maybe finish in May. But you can only squeeze it so much. And we respect the compression of the schedule, particularly when you take breaks for 4 Nations or the World Cup or the Olympics.
“So, you just can’t say, ‘It would be great to finish in May.’ Well, you can’t do that unless there’s a consequence on the other side.”
Bettman clarified he was joking about starting in August. If the schedule format does go through in the next CBA, it would be a regular season that starts earlier in October and a Stanley Cup Final ending earlier in June.
Let’s hope.
GO DEEPER
Do players support a shorter preseason and longer regular season in the NHL?
Expansion
Even though expansion wasn’t formally covered as an agenda item at the meeting, it remained a top-of-mind consideration for some governors in conversations around the hallways.
In fact, one of the two prospective Atlanta-area groups even had a representative on the ground Monday to plant a seed with current owners.
The NHL hasn’t signalled when — or even if — it will look at expanding beyond 32 teams, but it seems to have a growing list of suitors looking to gain entrance to the club. Beyond Atlanta, you have major markets in Houston and Phoenix currently without a team, and Bettman has said previously that smaller places like Cincinnati and Nebraska have shown interest.
Asked about the prospect of expansion Tuesday, Bettman said, “There’s nothing going on at the present time other than there continue to be expressions of interest.”
Docuseries
One final item of note: Governors were told that the Amazon Prime “FACEOFF: Inside the NHL” docuseries delivered strong viewership numbers and generated a lot of positive feedback.
While nothing is formal or finalized, it’s expected to return for a second season, with cameras again being granted behind-the-scenes access in the new year.
(Photo of Gary Bettman: Chris Tanouye / Getty Images)
