It's been hard, as a modern hockey fan, to dream up superstar trade scenarios without immediately worrying about the salary cap. The cap ceiling had been low and generally stagnant since the pandemic, and at this point, even most of the historically frugal NHL teams have caught up and are spending close to the cap.
A few weeks ago, our horizons expanded with the biggest in-season trade we'd seen in years: the Mikko Rantanen blockbuster. Since then, the NHL announced the cap ceiling will rise significantly over the next three years. The current $88 million cap ceiling is expected to reach $95.