NHL Salary Cap Announced for 2015-16 Season

The NHL officially released its revised salary cap for the 2015-16 season Tuesday, and it will allow teams to spend up to $71.4 million on player contracts during the upcoming campaign.

According to NHLPA.com, the league also set the salary-cap floor at $52.8 million.

Per former Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writer Shelly Anderson, the cap limit rose higher than initially expected, albeit only slightly:

According to Eric Duhatschek of the Globe and Mail, certainty regarding the cap could be the catalyst needed to open up the trade market ahead of Friday's NHL draft:

As things currently stand, no team is above the salary cap. The Tampa Bay Lightning are closest at $70,662,000, per NHLNumbers.com. However, there are some organizations that must get themselves above the cap floor.

The Arizona Coyotes, Nashville Predators, Buffalo Sabres, New Jersey Devils, Winnipeg Jets, Washington Capitals, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary Flames are all below the $52.8 million threshold, although that number should dwindle quickly as free agency begins July 1.

While the 2015-16 salary cap did increase, the fact that last season's cap was set at $69 million means that several franchises will still have to make some extremely difficult decisions in order to ensure that they remain under the limit.

With free agency looking light on top-end talent, look for teams to prey on those who need to dump salary in hopes of landing quality players at bargain prices.

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