Could this summer see sticker shock on the trade market?

The salary cap is rising, and teams will have more money to spend heading into the 2026-27 NHL season. Yet it comes with a subpar free-agent class, making the upcoming offseason one of the most perplexing in recent NHL history.

Will lesser free agents get bigger deals, will more players re-sign with their teams, or could it have a knock-on impact on the trade market, potentially causing some sticker shock on select players?

On Tuesday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Jeff Marek from The Sheet with Jeff Marek joined co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton to break down what the trade effect may be.  

Tyler Yaremchuk: I think this is kind of an off-season that we’re heading into, which is a bit of an unknown, because the salary cap is going up and the free agent class is garbage. We’ve heard all of those; we’ve spent a lot of time dissecting them. I think there could be some sticker shock on the free agent front, but there could even be some sticker shock on the trade front.

I think if, let’s say, Robert Thomas gets moved, or Jordan Kyrou gets moved, and it’s like, whoa, some team was willing to give up how much for him? Does it cause some other GMs to reevaluate moving on from some guys, because if Kyrou gets that, another guy might get even more?

Jeff Marek: What is the one position we always look at and say that’s all that they got? Goaltending. Doesn’t every single goalie trade give you the “that’s it, that’s all it costs to get that guy,” reaction? That’s why I wonder about this off-season, and maybe it’s with one of the Colorado Avalanche netminders, or maybe both. We’ve seen Colorado do this before, too. Maybe the Avalanche looks at moving one of their netminders, and maybe there’s good compensation for that, too?

You can catch the full breakdown of what the 2026 offseason may hold and the rest of Tuesday’s show right here…