Here's Who Will Benefit Most from the NHL's Salary Cap Increase

What would you do with an unexpected windfall? Your boss hasn't given you a raise in years despite that boss telling anyone who will listen about how the company has never been as healthy, then a hefty check falls into your lap. Take a vacation? Give it to charity? Take the cash, make a pile and light half of it on fire before stealing a criminal kingpin's dogs?

Or would you use the extra money to sign your forthcoming restricted free agents to new contracts instead of trading them to remain under a stagnant salary cap? Or perhaps use the money to satisfy the demands of a talented unrestricted free agent and prevent him from reaching the open market? Or bring a UFA to your team?

The NHL's salary cap is poised to make its first significant jump since 2014-15, when it increased from $64.3 million to a nice $69 million. According to Gary Bettman, who would have no reason to be withholding when it comes to this so we should trust him here, the 2018-19 salary cap ceiling will be between $78 million and $82 million.

Even if it were the low end, the $3 million increase would be the largest since that 2014-15 season.

This relief is a life preserver for teams drowning in a prison of their own creation; for others, it's extra room they have no intention of using. You may as well give the Arizona Coyotes a tennis racquet made of asparagus because they're more likely to use that than an extra $6 million.

According to Cap Friendly, there are 14 teams that have at least $60 million in salary-cap space dedicated to next season; three teams (Chicago, Edmonton, Anaheim) have fewer than 15 players signed (14, to be exact), three teams (Chicago, Ottawa, Los Angeles) are at $65 million or higher, and five teams (Edmonton, Dallas, Vancouver, Vegas, and Winnipeg) have at least seven RFAs due raises this summer. They can all use at minimum an extra $3 million to varying degrees.

When it comes to cap relief, everyone automatically focuses on the Blackhawks, the team that always needs to be creative because Jonathan Toews is paid like Sidney Crosby for his 60-point seasons and Brent Seabrook was pretty good five years ago. But this year is different, as the Blackhawks don't have any studs coming off entry-level deals or foundational players becoming UFAs. They're not exactly sitting in an exit row but a few extra million bucks doesn't matter in terms of their leg room.

Who is that bald older man sitting in the corner surrounded by wet paint? Why, that's Oilers general manager Peter Chiarelli holding a damp brush with a confused look on his face. While Scotty Bowman's son in Chicago is probably wishing this additional cap space was available three years ago, Chiarelli will poke his head out from the rising water this summer and breathe the sweetest breath he's ever taken thanks to this room (assuming he still has the job).

The most expensive RFAs will be Ryan Strome and Darnell Nurse, but maybe that extra money will be what allows the Oilers to retain Patrick Maroon, a UFA due a decent salary bump over his $1.5 million that has played well alongside Connor McDavid. Or maybe Chiarelli will create cap space by trading Ryan Nugent-Hopkins for a third-pairing defenseman and none of this matters.

One team that could make the most of the room is the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have just $49 million allocated toward 2018-19 and would still be a year away from shelling out big contracts to Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner. William Nylander will sign a second contract this summer, otherwise the Leafs will be in position to spend on the open market (hello, John Carlson) more freely than they otherwise could or prevent James van Riemsdyk from leaving.

If anything, the bonus space makes the Patrick Marleau contract look far more reasonable than it did a few months ago.

Teams will all benefit in some way from the additional room, but it will be players hitting the free-agent market this summer that will benefit the most.

A top-tier UFA like John Tavares won't see a big difference in his next contract, but it's the second- and third-tier players—Carlson, Rick Nash, van Riemsdyk, Patric Hornqvist, Evander Kane, Mikael Backlund—that are in line to see that extra money. UFA contracts always leave you shaking your head, as that is the nature of UFA contracts, but 4-5 players will get deals that will make you think that real Bob McKenzie account is a fake Bob McKenzie account on Twitter.

These riches don't come without potential disaster. A big reason why so many teams will see the big leap in cap room as an oasis is because the last time this happened, GMs took it to mean the cap would steadily increase in the coming years. "But the cap will go up" was the knee-jerk rationale behind every questionable contract. That's how a low-budget team like the Islanders landed Johnny Boychuk and Nick Leddy for 30 cents on the dollar.

The odds of the cap stagnating for three straight years again seem low now that the NHL has added a seemingly profitable 31st team and an expansion fee from a Seattle team on the horizon, but you never want to assume the cap will go up because then you make an ass out of you (Chiarelli) and me (Bowman).

Just keep all of the past week's quotes about the NHL never being healthier when owners attempt to squeeze the players with the threat of another lockout in 2020.