After years of remaining flat and stagnant, the NHL salary cap is back on the rise. It went from $83.5 million all the way up to $88 million for the 2024-25 season, and it is expected that the 2025-26 cap could be set around $92.5 million and potentially even higher.

That would be a meaningful jump for every team across the league, but there are a handful of teams that would benefit more than others in the short term given the roster and contract situations they are facing.

Let's talk about some of them.

Toronto Maple Leafs

No team's salary-cap situation is put under a more intense microscope annually than the Toronto Maple Leafs given the financial commitments they have made to core players Auston Matthews, Mitch Marner, William Nylander and John Tavares.

They are a team that spends to the cap every season and is desperate to bring a Stanley Cup back to Toronto for the first time since the Original Six days.

While Matthew and Nylander are already locked into long-term deals, they are facing a big offseason full of decisions as Marner and Tavares are both set to become unrestricted free agents after this season.

It remains to be seen what direction the Maple Leafs want to go with them, and there is a good chance that if they fizzle out in the playoffs again they might finally use that as a chance to reset their core. After all, how long can you keep losing in the first round before you start to question the biggest common denominators.

But if the Maple Leafs find postseason success and want to keep one or both, or if they want to go in a different direction and bring in different star-level players (and there could be options), every extra dollar in salary-cap space is going to be important.

Toronto already has $64.6 million committed to 16 players for next season, and that is before you get into potential deals for Marner and Tavares, or restricted free agents like Matthew Knies who is also playing himself into a nice raise, or potential upgrades to the roster from outside the organization they will almost certainly need.

Toronto are highly likely to spend to the cap whatever the limit is, so the higher it goes the better off the Maple Leafs' situation will become.

Colorado Avalanche

There is perhaps no contender that needs a cap increase more than Colorado given the roster and who it needs to re-sign.

The Avalanche already have $71.5 million in salary committed to their 2025-26 roster, while superstar forward Mikko Rantanen is a potential unrestricted free agent and the only goalie under contract for next season is Justus Annunen.

Rantanen is the type of player you do not let go unless the player has zero interest in staying. Whatever the cost, you have to find a way to make it work. And I suspect the Avalanche eventually well.

He is too talented and important to the roster to let him get away. He is also still in what should be his prime years in the league with a ton of productive hockey ahead of him.

He won't be cheap, and that will eat up a significant portion of their remaining cap space.

Along with that, the Avs are almost certainly hoping captain Gabriel Landeskog and his $7 million cap hit will be back, while they also have players like Jonathan Drouin up for UFA.

Then there is the goalie situation that has turned into a complete disaster. An upgrade there is a must.

They only have 13 players signed for next season and have somewhere around $22 million to spend on the rest of the roster. After Rantanen's deal gets done, that number goes down even more.

Every extra dollar helps.

New York Rangers

It is hard to figure out what the New York Rangers lineup is going to look like next season as management threatens to put core players on the trade block.

Whoever is on the roster and whatever it looks like, you can be sure the Rangers are going to be spending to the cap and trying to win.

The pressure is on to get to the Stanley Cup Final and seriously compete for a championship.

The most important player is going to be starting goalie Igor Shesterkin, who is as close to a must-sign as there is for any team in the NHL. He is the backbone of the franchise and the most important piece for everything they do on the ice.

He also does not seem willing to take any sort of a hometown discount (nor should he be pressured to). That next contract is probably going to be in the $11-13 million per year range and is going to eat into a lot of the Rangers' available salary-cap space.

They also still have young players like Kaapo Kakko and K'Andre Miller due for raises and extensions, along with any other outside additions that will be necessary to improve the roster.

Maybe the Rangers can trade somebody like Jacob Trouba to clear salary-cap space next season. It would help. But what would really help is finding a taker for Trouba and also having the cap keep going up.

Edmonton Oilers

As long as the Oilers have Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl on their roster, they have to treat every season like it is an "all in" year.

A rising cap is not only something they need next season, but also the year after when McDavid will be starting a new contract that is probably going to exceed the $14 million per year Draisaitl signed for.

That means by 2026 they could have two players accounting for nearly $30 million in cap space. And while both players are going to be worth every penny, they are still going to need to keep building a team around them.

In the short term, defenseman Evan Bouchard is a restricted free agent after this season, and they also have five forwards slated for UFA.

There are going to be a lot of roster spots that need filled, and that does not even get into the fact that they have a huge need to upgrade a lot of spots because the depth (at both forward and defense) and the goaltending is nowhere close to where it needs to be.

Some big numbers are ahead for key players here. They need the cap to move as much as possible.

Vegas Golden Knights

It is not necessarily because Vegas has a lot of key players with expiring contracts after this season (though it does have Jack Eichel coming from after next year), but the reality that it is probably just going to want to be a player for whichever big name is available this offseason.

It's what the Golden Knights do.

The big position to watch is in goal where they have nobody under contract after this season.

Do you really think the Golden Knights would ignore a potential UFA Igor Shesterkin should he hit the free-agent market?

Even if they don't go for a big-name goalie, there is nothing about the Golden Knights front office and management that indicates they won't be a big spender when the opportunity presents itself.

They don't necessarily need more salary-cap space, but they might take advantage of it.