Some deadlines come with a buzzer. On September 16, the NHL's new collective bargaining agreement took effect at midnight Eastern, and teams spent the day before signing players to eight-year deals while they still could. The Associated Press, via CBC, reports the Ottawa Senators signed Drake Batherson for $86 million over eight years, the richest contract in team history, beating Tim Stutzle's eight-year, $66.8 million extension from 2022. Washington locked up Ryan Leonard for $84 million.
The league and the players' union ratified the deal back in July 2025, more than a year early. It runs four years, through September 15, 2030, and the regular season grows to 84 games. "This CBA shows what can be accomplished when the NHL and the Union work together," NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh said at ratification. The signed Memorandum of Understanding is posted, a scanned table of every change. It even includes a promise that the NHL and the NHLPA "commit to participate in the 2030 Winter Olympics, subject to negotiation of terms acceptable to each of the NHL, NHLPA, and IIHF (and/or IOC)." Two changes are worth reading, and they're about very different kinds of money.
Takeaway #1: Seven years is the new eight
FROM THE CONTRACT
"An SPC with a term of greater than six (6) years, provided, however, that a Club may sign a Player to an SPC with a term of up to seven (7) years if that Player was on such Club's Reserve List as of and since the most recent Trade Deadline."
What it means for you. An SPC is a Standard Player's Contract. This clause sits in a list of contracts teams can't sign. In plain English: no contract longer than six years, except a team re-signing its own player, which can go to seven. The AP puts it simply: seven years became the longest a player could re-sign with his own team, "and six years in free agency." Before the deadline, a team could re-sign its own player for eight.
Why does one extra year matter so much? Term is security, for both sides. An eighth year can be tens of millions of guaranteed dollars for a player, and a long-term risk for a team. That's why the deadline turned into a signing spree. The devil is in the details, too. A traded player can still sign a seven-year extension with his new team if he'd have qualified with the old one, within the window the old team would have had, if his current contract runs through the next Trade Deadline.
Your move. Agents, map every client's eligibility for the seven-year extension now, including what happens if he's traded before the deadline.
Takeaway #2: Teams can't set the dress code anymore
FROM THE CONTRACT
"New CBA Section 30.7(c) to provide: 'Clubs are not permitted to propose any rules concerning Player dress code.'"
"New CBA Section 30.9 to provide: 'Players are required to dress in a manner that is consistent with contemporary fashion norms.'"
What it means for you. For years, the walk from the bus to the locker room has been a runway in other leagues. The MOU deletes the old dress-code rule, Rule 5 in Exhibit 14 of the CBA. Now teams can't propose any dress-code rules at all. The only standard left is "contemporary fashion norms."
That's a phrase a lawyer could argue about all day. Whose norms? Which season? But the business point is clearer. A fashion brand that wants a player in its suit, sneakers or streetwear on arrival night is now dealing with a player who chooses his own clothes. The arrival walk is a place a player could wear a sponsor's look. That could open a new endorsement slot.
There are limits. League and team sponsor conflicts, game-day rules and the player's own deals still apply. And "contemporary fashion norms" is still a rule, so don't expect pajamas.
Your move. Players and agents, check every apparel deal for an arrival-wear clause, and every team or league sponsorship for conflicts, before a brand books the tunnel.
Sample wording (our illustration): "Player will wear Brand apparel for arrivals at no fewer than ten home games, subject to League and Club rules."
And always remember, don't sign it till you read it, my friends.
General information, not legal advice. Reading this doesn't create an attorney-client relationship. Players should talk to the NHLPA and their own lawyers about their contracts.
Sources
- NHL/NHLPA Memorandum of Understanding (signed scan, linked from NHL.com)
- NHL.com, 'NHL, NHL Players' Association ratify 4-year Collective Bargaining Agreement', July 8, 2025
- The Associated Press (Stephen Whyno), via CBC Sports, 'NHL teams rush to sign players to 8-year contracts before new CBA deadline', Sept. 16, 2026
