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§1Annual Cap Numbers
- The 2025–26 salary cap is $102.5M for new leagues (represented as 102.500)
- The cap increases by $2M after the first season
- It increases by $1.5M each subsequent season until it reaches $107.5M
- Future cap numbers may change at the Executive Committee's discretion, with fair prior notice
Key Rule
In January, every team receives a $3,000,000 mid-season bonus, granted automatically.
§2What Counts as a Cap Hit
The following all count against your salary cap:
- Annual cap hit (AAV) of every varsity player not on IR
- Fees assessed for roster moves
- Buyouts and money owed to released players
- Fines assessed for illegal activity
- Signing bonuses (waiver claims, RFA bidding, UFA fees)
§3Trading Excess Cap Space
Cap space for the current season and the next two can be included in trades.
Key Rule
Limits on cap trades:
- No team can acquire more than $7M total net gain in salary cap per season through trades
- Total net loss via cap trades cannot exceed $21M over three seasons (current + next two)
§4Salary Cap Resources
Where the CHA gets its numbers:
- Primary source: capfriendly.com AAV figure
- Fallback for discrepancies: puckpedia.com
- Further discrepancies: Commissioner's discretion
- All salaries rounded up to the nearest $1,000 (0.001)
Key Rule
When an NHL team retains some salary on a player, the CHA team pays the player's full cap hit. The "Initial Cap Hit" from this list is what counts.