NHL and NHLPA Discuss Potential 84-Game Season in CBA Talks
The NHL and the NHL Players' Association are negotiating a potential increase to an 84-game regular season during their collective bargaining agreement, known as a CBA, discussions. An increase over the current 82-game schedule has been discussed internally by the NHL over the past few seasons. The league has been considering scheduling alternatives after some franchises complained about an imbalanced number of divisional games against rivals, which are contests that typically draw larger crowds and bigger television audiences. The league has adjusted the length of its regular season various times throughout its existence. The length of seasons ranged from 74 to 78 games from 1967 to 1974 as multiple expansion teams joined the league. From 1972 to 1992, the NHL played 80-game regular seasons before it shifted to an 84-game campaign from 1992 to 1994, when the league and NHLPA agreed to add two neutral-site games to every team's schedule.
An expanded regular season is one of several issues being negotiated in the CBA talks. They include a way to address teams' use of the long-term injured reserve salary cap exemption late in the regular season, only to bring those players back into their lineups at the start of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, which ended with the Florida Panthers repeating as Stanley Cup Champions. One possible remedy discussed is that lineups iced in the playoffs must be cap-compliant, although the entirety of the roster can still exceed the salary cap in the postseason. The NHL and NHLPA have been nearing an agreement on a new CBA over the past several weeks.
The current CBA, which was signed in 2013 with a four-year extension ratified in 2020, expires in September 2026. The NHL and NHLPA began collective bargaining discussions in April after having informal talks in the weeks leading up to that. The NHL and NHLPA are not believed to be far apart on CBA talks. This is good news for both the NHL and the NHLPA, given that both entities still have more than a year to negotiate a new CBA. Other items believed to be under consideration alongside an 84-game season include dropping maximum-length contracts from eight years to seven years, draft rights until age 22, and an end to deferred-salary contracts. However, nothing can be declared for certain until the pen is put to paper when and if the NHL and the NHLPA agree on their latest collective bargaining agreement.
