11 NHL Teams Carrying Overage Charges Into 2025-26

Performance bonuses impact teams the following season a lot. Teams that finish the season over the salary cap and have players who earn bonuses, carry over as a cap charge to the following season. This is the case for at least 11 teams this season.

40% of teams finished the season over the salary cap and did this by using LTIR and 20 teams used LTIR at one point during the season. The performance bonus overages aren't always big, but sometimes can negatively impact a team and put them in a bind. There was $15.6 million charged in overages this season, but it is down to $8.6 million heading into next season. The highest hit on a team this season was $3.45 million to the Edmonton Oilers.

Now for who will have performance bonus overages charged to their salary cap next season.

The St. Louis Blues will have $2.153 million on the cap next season. Ryan Suter hit his games played mark and earned $2.225 million and Zach Bolduc earned $212.5K for +/-. The team had $284K cap space left over.

The Montreal Canadiens are expected to have at least $1.727 million against the cap next season due to Lane Hutson with $750K, Juraj Slafkovsky with $500K, Kaiden Guhle with $420K, and Jayden Struble with $57.5K. The Canadiens could add to that with Ivan Demidov playing five playoff games for $25K, $30K for 10 playoff games, and $525K for the Conn Smythe Trophy.

The Minnesota Wild should have the third most with a cap hit of $1.1 million. This is the result of Marco Rossi with $850K and Brock Faber with $250K. Zeev Buium can also earn $25K for five playoff games played and another $25K for the Conn Smythe Trophy. This is a lot less than Demidov and any other who has a Conn Smythe bonus.

Next is the New Jersey Devils who are giving $1 million to Luke Hughes who earned it this season.

The Detroit Red Wings were the only team with an overage charge that didn't use LTIR, and the team also had $2.02 million in cap space at the end of the season. This helps a bit, but Patrick Kane earned $1.75 million in bonuses, Simon Edvinsson earned $638K, and Marco Kasper earned $500K. The team has an overage charge of $871K next season.

The Toronto Maple Leafs have $626K all going to Max Pacioretty.

The New York Islanders have an overage charge of $600K. This comes from Maxim Tsyplakov with $500K and Matt Martin with $100K. Tsyplakov can earn $250K more if he gets named to the All-Rookie Team this season.

The Dallas Stars are only charged $368K for next season due to Wyatt Johnston earning $319K and Logan Stankoven earning $49.5K before being traded.

The Los Angeles Kings have an overage charge of $212.5K from Brandt Clarke.

The Oilers are going to be very happy with only having to possibly have $150K on the books next season as they were at $3.45 million this season. The $150K comes from Corey Perry and $100K more can go to Perry if the Oilers win the second round of the playoffs ($50K) and the team wins the third round ($50K).

As of right now, the Carolina Hurricanes will only have a $33K overage charge for next season for Stankoven's games played after the trade. If Juha Jaaska plays two games, it'll be an added $5K, and if Alexander Nikishin wins the Conn Smythe, the Hurricanes give him $1.0375 million.

The final team that doesn't currently have any cap overages, but can, are the Washington Capitals. They would see Ryan Leonard get $275K if he wins Conn Smythe.

The performance bonus cap overages are going to go down with the salary cap rising, but there will still probably be some every year moving forward as teams like to push the boundaries and go all in.