The National Hockey League’s salary cap is expected to rise to $87.7 million this offseason. As such, teams around the league will have much more flexibility than they’ve become accustomed to over the last half-decade or so.

After years of complaints about the largely flat cap making it difficult to swing big moves, the incumbent crop of NHL GMs won’t have any excuse not to go all-out in their pursuit of difference-makers this summer. With 32 teams (including a newly relocated one), there’ll be more competition than ever — and, with it, a greater risk of the least aggressive teams being left behind.

With the assistance of CapFriendly‘s projections, we’ve compiled a list of five teams with the cap space, assets, and, above all, the motivation to make a splash in the 2024 offseason. Look for these teams to be major players at the draft, free agency, and beyond.

Carolina Hurricanes

Projected cap space: $27.3 million with 17-man roster
Notable UFAs: Jake Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen, Jordan Martinook, Stefan Noesen, Brett Pesce, Brady Skjei, Jalen Chatfield, Tony DeAngelo, Antti Raanta
Notable RFAs: Martin Necas, Seth Jarvis, Jack Drury

The Hurricanes have already made one major change off the ice, allowing Don Waddell to depart the organization after 10 years of service (including the last six as general manager). That move came after the club agreed to terms on multi-year contract extensions with head coach Rod Brind’Amour and the rest of his staff.

So, the GM is gone, but the coaches are here to stay. That’s settled. What very much remains in the air is the fate of prized trade deadline acquisition Jake Guentzel, who fit in seamlessly with the Hurricanes down the stretch. He’s one of more than a half-dozen notable pending UFAs on a Carolina team that could look very different at the start of next season.

The other big question mark pertains to Martin Necas, who debuted on Daily Faceoff insider Frank Seravalli’s Trade Targets board this week. Could the Hurricanes look to flip the talented but inconsistent Necas for a defenseman of a similar profile? With five of their rearguards seemingly headed for the open market this summer, it does make a fair amount of sense.

It’s also worth noting that Carolina has three other defensemen entering the final years of their respective contracts: Jaccob Slavin, Brent Burns, and Dmitry Orlov, the latter of whom is the most expensive despite being by far the least used by Brind’Amour last season. If the Hurricanes want to take a serious run at re-signing Guentzel, Teuvo Teravainen, or Brady Skjei, it tracks that they might try to find someone to take on Orlov’s final year at his $7.75 million cap hit.

Columbus Blue Jackets

Projected cap space: $23.5 million with 15-man roster
Notable UFAs: Nick Blankenburg
Notable RFAs: Kirill Marchenko, Kent Johnson, Cole Sillinger, Alex Nylander, Yegor Chinakov, Alex Texier, Jake Bean, Jet Greaves

Speaking of Waddell … he has a massive undertaking ahead of him as the brand-new GM and president of hockey operations in Columbus. It’s now been a few years since the Blue Jackets last made the playoffs and it’s probably fair to say that they’ve never been a serious contender in their entire existence. After spending the last decade transforming the Hurricanes organization on both the business and hockey sides, Waddell will be tasked with doing the same with the Blue Jackets.

It’s fair to say the Blue Jackets might’ve been the most directionless team in hockey last season, what with nearly every notable player on their roster underperforming. Under head coach Pascal Vincent, promising young players like David Jiricek and Adam Fantilli had a difficult time securing consistent roles in the lineup. Prized UFA signing Johnny Gaudreau finished the season with 12 goals and 60 points, a far cry from his big 115-point year in Calgary.

The Blue Jackets clearly need to make some moves. It all starts with them taking care of their RFAs, but beyond that, they need to be on the lookout for more players to support their burgeoning young core. This is a team that should be extremely active in the trade market, both in terms of moving some of their older players (see: Ivan Provorov, Sean Kuraly) and adding talented younger ones to play alongside the likes of Fantilli and Kent Johnson. The problem in Columbus, as always, lies in retaining the skilled players they do acquire, but they have the capital to take a run at some top talent. Could Necas follow Waddell to the Blue Jackets?

Utah HC

Projected cap space: $43.3 million with 11-man roster
Notable UFAs: Travis Boyd, Liam O’Brien, Travis Dermott, Josh Brown
Notable RFAs: Barrett Hayton, J.J. Moser, Sean Durzi, Michael Kesselring, Juuso Valimaki

Utah has the most projected cap space in the entire league, although CapFriendly’s projection doesn’t include Dylan Guenther and Josh Doan, both of whom were sent back down to AHL Tucson for this year’s playoffs. They’ll both be back up in the NHL to start next season as Utah makes its much-awaited debut in place of the inactive Arizona Coyotes.

Given how little money has been spent on this roster, it’s surprisingly strong up front, with Clayton Keller, Nick Schmaltz, Matias Maccelli, Logan Cooley, and Guenther all playing key roles. Where Utah badly needs to make a splash this summer is on defense, where J.J. Moser and Sean Durzi are practically on an island. Although Michael Kesselring and Juuso Valimaki have both shown promise in spurts over the last two seasons, neither will (or should) deter Utah from going all-out in its pursuit of a top defender this summer.

Could Utah land Brandon Montour, Brady Skjei, Brett Pesce, or Sean Walker in free agency? What about Shayne Gostisbehere, who thrived in two seasons under André Tourigny in Arizona? None of those guys is a jack-of-all-trades No. 1 defenseman, but they’d each be a welcome addition to a bare-bones group in Utah. On top of that, Utah could be in the running for guys like Anton Silayev, Zeev Buium, Sam Dickinson, and Zayne Parekh in this year’s draft.

Given how many of their players will be due significant raises off their entry-level contracts in the coming seasons, don’t expect Utah to spend to the cap straight away … but new owner Ryan Smith will still be able to throw money around to his heart’s content this summer.

Calgary Flames

Projected cap space: $19.8 million with 19-man roster
Notable UFAs: A.J. Greer, Oliver Kylington
Notable RFAs: Jakob Pelletier, Dustin Wolf

The Flames are moving in the opposite direction from the other teams on this list. They’ve missed the playoffs in back-to-back seasons and are directly incentivized to do the same next year, lest they forfeit their own 2025 first-round pick to the Montreal Canadiens in the Sean Monahan trade. After trading away Tyler Toffoli, Nikita Zadorov, Elias Lindholm, Chris Tanev, and Noah Hanifin over the last calendar year, the Flames likely won’t be any better in the 2024-25 season — if anything, they might be in the mix for a top-five pick.

Furthermore, after trading away the aforementioned five players, the Flames don’t have many notable players slated to become free agents this summer. Oliver Kylington is widely expected to stick around after missing a large chunk of the last two seasons while dealing with mental health issues, while Dustin Wolf and Jakob Pelletier should both command incremental raises from their entry-level salaries. None of them will break the bank.

That leaves the Flames with a fascinating amount of flexibility, compounded by the fact that Jacob Markstrom appears to be on the trade block and three of their more high-profile forwards — Yegor Sharangovich, Andrew Mangiapane, and Andrei Kuzmenko — are entering the final years of their respective contracts. They have plenty of decisions to make.

But where the Flames could make their presence felt the most this summer is in taking on other teams’ problematic contracts. They already did it once, with Kuzmenko, to great effect. Who’s to say they couldn’t do it again, perhaps with players like Orlov from Carolina and Tanner Jeannot from Tampa Bay? They’re replete with options.

Detroit Red Wings

Projected cap space: $29.1 million with 13-man roster
Notable UFAs: Patrick Kane, David Perron, Daniel Sprong, Christian Fischer, Shayne Gostisbehere, James Reimer
Notable RFAs: Lucas Raymond, Joe Veleno, Jonatan Berggren, Moritz Seider

If the Red Wings weren’t fully motivated to end their long playoff drought before, they certainly will be now after losing out on the final Eastern Conference wild card berth in heartbreaking fashion in the final week of the 2023-24 regular season. Even though the Washington Capitals went on to be swept by the New York Rangers in Round 1, the Red Wings still only have themselves to blame for missing out on the opportunity to take on the Presidents’ Trophy winners.

After making the playoffs in a staggering 25 consecutive seasons from 1991 to 2016, the Red Wings have now failed to qualify for the postseason eight years in a row. Make no mistake, they’ll certainly want to be back in the playoffs once again by the time the franchise begins its centennial celebration in 2026. Steve Yzerman has a lot of leeway as Red Wings GM, but the results just haven’t been there … yet.

Detroit’s top two priorities this summer are undoubtedly Lucas Raymond and Moritz Seider, both of whom have more than lived up to their billings as top draft picks for this club. But beyond those two, the Red Wings could go in any direction. It’s difficult to say whether they’ll bring back Patrick Kane, who fit in seamlessly on their top power-play unit this season, or Shayne Gostisbehere, who led their defense corps with 56 points. Both are on the wrong side of 30, as are fellow pending UFAs David Perron and James Reimer.

If anything, the Red Wings are a little light on true star power. Could Detroit be the landing spot for Steven Stamkos, who knows Yzerman well and still has yet to agree to terms on an extension in Tampa Bay? What about Trevor Zegras, whose time in Anaheim could be nearing its end? Both would be welcome additions to a Red Wings team that badly needs to take the next step.

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