Call them the Kings of Cap Space.

Good morning to you.

Good Thursday morning.

I'm Dan Kovach, which of D.K. Pittsburgh Sports.

This is Daily Shot of Penguins.

It comes your way bright and early every weekday.

If you're into football and or baseball, I also offer daily shots of Steelers and pirates in the same place

that you found this. The NHL formally set its salary cap structure and reflective of the league's

growth and not at all unexpectedly, the reflective of the league's growth, and not at all, unexpectedly, the ceiling of the

cap will go up by 8.5 million to an upper limit of 104 million. The lower limit, which

really doesn't apply, is at 76.9 million.

So you can think to yourself, you know, reflexively, this is good news for the penguins

because every team thinks that the cap going up is good news, because it allows them

more flexibility to keep the players they want, pursue the players they want, etc.

The truth is it's the same for all 32 franchises.

But here's what isn't the same.

That's the amount of cap space that you have.

That's the ceiling minus, obviously, your existing commitments.

And the team that has the greatest cap space would be your Pittsburgh Penguins at a whopping

45 million.

You heard me right, 45 million.

If you're looking for some context on that, the sharks are next at 41, the ducks at 40, Blackhawks at 40, bluejackets at 40, and the two teams with the least amount of cap space, also unsurprising, are the avalanche with just $3 million, the Golden Knights with just 4 million.

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