CBA’s Minimum Salary Changes Will Only Mildly Affect the Habs

With the NHL and NHLPA recently ratifying the four-year CBA extension beginning in 2026-27, several changes will be coming at that time.  One change is an increase in minimum salaries which will have an impact on some of Montreal’s recall options.

For the upcoming season, the minimum salary remains intact at $775,000 but it will jump to $850,000 for the 2026-27 campaign.  Accordingly, anyone with a 2026-27 salary below $850,000 will see their contracts and cap hits adjusted to reflect the new base salary.

Fortunately for Montreal, there is only one player who is going to be affected by this, forward Lucas Condotta.  Last season, he signed a two-year, two-way extension worth the minimum salary at the NHL level each year, meaning his cap hit and 2026-27 salary will go up.

Since the transition rules haven’t been released yet, it remains to be seen if the adjustments will be applied right away, affecting the cap hits starting in 2025-26 or if they will only come in effect for that league year.  If it’s the former, Condotta’s NHL cap hit would remain $775K for next season, then jump to $812,500 in 2026-27.  If it’s the latter, then his cap hit would be $812,500 in both years.

For 2027-28, the minimum salary will go up again to $900,000.  While Condotta’s contract will be up by then, this change will affect a pair of Montreal’s prospects who are still on their entry-level agreements.

David Reinbacher is the first.  His salary in 2027-28 is presently set to be $855,000, thanks to two straight seasons of his contract sliding.  That number now needs to jump to $900,000, resulting in a $15,000 increase in his cap hit.  Again, it’s unknown if that will be applied starting in 2025-26 or if that change might not come until 2027-28.  Considering Reinbacher is expected to be a key contributor in Montreal by then, he’ll cost a bit more than expected at that time.

The other prospect that will be affected is recent signee Tyler Thorpe.  At the moment, his 2027-28 salary is $860,000 as the current deal is ever-so-slightly front-loaded.  His salary will automatically be increased to $900,000 for that year, resulting in a $13,333.33 increase in his cap hit with the same qualifier as Reinbacher in that it’s unknown when the higher cap charge will come into effect.

The minimum salary increases to $950,000 in 2028-29 and $1 million in 2029-30 but the Habs don’t have anyone whose existing contracts will be modified by those changes.

Several teams have considerably more prospects whose price tags will see some small increases, while a few NHL regulars (Carolina’s William Carrier, Tampa Bay’s Jakob Pelletier, and Florida’s Dmitry Kulikov) will have their cap charges bumped up at some point.  But the increase in minimum salary is going to have a marginal impact on the Canadiens at most over the next couple of years.