The NHL's salary cap will be between $81.5 and $82 million for the 2019-20 season, according to The Associated Press.

Commissioner Gary Bettman projected during the NHL Board of Governors meetings in December that the current $79.5-million cap would increase to $83 million.

The lower-than-expected number will result in added difficulty for teams trying to re-sign key players and fill out their rosters while already facing limited cap space.

The cap is calculated as a percentage of the league's revenue from the previous season.

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Toronto Maple Leafs star forward Auston Matthews believes the Raptors winning an NBA championship has provided some extra motivation for him and his teammates.

"I think for us as players, it’s a little extra motivation for next season, just to see what could be if we end up accomplishing that ultimate goal," Matthews said Wednesday, according to The Canadian Press.

Matthews watched on from his home in Arizona as his adopted city celebrated its first major championship since 1993. An estimated 2 million people lined the Raptors' parade route and crammed into Nathan Phillips Square on Monday.

"You just can’t imagine what it would be like," Matthews said. "It was just amazing, you saw the support (for the Raptors). People were getting out of their cars on the freeway to take in the parade ... it’s hard to put into words, really."

The Maple Leafs have taken sole possession of the NHL's longest championship drought. They were previously tied with the Blues, who entered the league in 1967 following Toronto's last Stanley Cup victory. St. Louis won the title last Wednesday.

Many Leafs players were in attendance to cheer on the Raptors during the regular season and playoffs. They also had a chance to shoot some hoops at Scotiabank Arena last year, when Matthews' skills impressed his teammates.

"(Matthews) played basketball for a couple of years in Arizona," Mitch Marner told TSN in February 2018, per NHL.com. "He was putting guys in spin cycles and stuff."

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Carolina Hurricanes general manager Don Waddell isn't optimistic about reaching deals with either Petr Mrazek or Curtis McElhinney before the goaltenders become unrestricted free agents July 1.

"We're trying to sign them, but it doesn't look like we're going to get either signed," Waddell said Tuesday, according to NHL.com's Tom Gulitti. "So, if not, we'll go to the market and see what's out there for July 1."

The goaltending duo shared the workload last season while helping the Canes secure a wild-card spot. Mrazek took over the starting role during the team's improbable playoff run to the Eastern Conference Final until leaving Game 2 of the second round with an injury. McElhinney stepped in to complete the sweep of the New York Islanders before the pair split starts in a sweep at the hands of the Boston Bruins.

Although it looks likely that the two goalies will be elsewhere next season, Waddell isn't ruling out a return for either of them.

"Sometimes guys test the market and then you find where we're at," Waddell said. "We'd like to have both guys back. I've publicly said that. But right now, we don't have deals done with them."

Mrazek and McElhinney might be hard-pressed to find an easier goaltending assignment next season. The Canes allowed the third-fewest shots against (28.6 per game) in the regular season and led the league in shot differential, peppering opposing goaltenders with 479 more shots than they allowed.

Carolina's goaltending situation took on a different look this past campaign without Cam Ward, who left as a free agent last summer. Ward had been a mainstay between the pipes for the Canes since winning the Stanley Cup as a rookie in 2006.

Waddell expects there to be yet another new mask in Carolina's crease next season and said prospect Alex Nedeljkovic will get a chance to earn a goaltender spot. The 23-year-old led the AHL Charlotte Checkers to a Calder Cup championship this season and won the Aldege "Baz" Bastien Memorial Award as the league's best goaltender.

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Vancouver Canucks general manager Jim Benning might trade forward Loui Eriksson after the 33-year-old said he and Canucks coach Travis Green "don't really get on 100 percent."

"I am going to talk to Loui this week and get his thoughts on everything and why he made the comment he did, but (a trade) could be something that's real," Benning said, according to Kevin Woodley of NHL.com.

Eriksson, who has three years left on a six-year, $36-million contract, made the comments to Swedish website HockeySverige.se while playing for Sweden at the 2019 IIHF World Championship.

A trade for Edmonton Oilers forward Milan Lucic could be a good fit for both teams, TSN's Darren Dreger speculated on "Insider Trading."

"There could be a fit and if you look at it from Edmonton's perspective, the interest might come from their newly hired coach Dave Tippett, who had Loui Eriksson in Dallas for three years, so there is a familiarity there," Dreger said. "The Vancouver Canucks do see ​value in Milan Lucic, in that they have a younger team, they have some smallish players... Milan Lucic could add a little bit of bite."

Both Eriksson and Lucic come with a $6-million cap hit.

Eriksson notched 11 goals and 29 points in 81 games this season.

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Philadelphia Flyers general manager Chuck Fletcher has made teams aware that he is willing to trade his club's first-round draft pick.

"It's early. I've mentioned to teams that we're in play but there hasn't been a big push for the pick yet," Fletcher said at a press conference Monday. "If we keep it and stay at 11, we're going to get a good player ... It's certainly a good chip that if moved, it could help."

Fletcher, who replaced Ron Hextall as the Flyers GM on Dec. 3, has said he will be "very aggressive" this offseason in an attempt to improve the team.

However, management is still confident Philadelphia will get a quality player if it keeps its first-rounder.

"At number 11, somebody will fall to us. After the top two ... I think from three to 15 there will be a lot of the same names but teams will have them ordered differently and I think that bodes well for us," assistant GM Brent Flahr said Monday.

"The way we look at it, we will take the best player at 11. I think as we go in the draft, we have some young defensemen that are in the NHL right now, and a couple coming, but we probably like to add defensemen depth to our organization going forward, whether it's at 11 or the second or third round, we will see."

The Flyers have nine picks in total in June's draft.

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With a 2-1 victory in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on Thursday, St. Louis Blues goaltender Jordan Binnington tied the NHL record for wins by a rookie in one playoff year.

Binnington's 15th win matched the previous totals of Cam Ward, Ron Hextall, Patrick Roy, and Matt Murray. Ward, Hextall, and Roy all went on to win the Conn Smythe Trophy.

The 24-year-old has been stellar since posting a shutout in his first career start on Jan. 7. He led all qualified starters with a 1.89 GAA in the regular season and has backstopped the Blues to within one win of the Stanley Cup.

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The Dallas Stars signed forward Mattias Janmark to a one-year contract extension worth $2.3 million, the team announced Thursday.

Janmark notched 25 points in 81 regular-season games for Dallas in 2018-19. He added another three points during seven playoff games.

The 26-year-old Swede was originally drafted in the third round (79th overall) by the Detroit Red Wings in 2013.

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The Edmonton Oilers signed forward Brad Malone and goaltender Shane Starrett to one-year contract extensions on Monday, the team announced.

Malone, 30, played 23 games with the Oilers over the past two seasons and has yet to register a point. Prior to his time in Edmonton, he notched 30 points and 188 penalty minutes in 189 contests with the Carolina Hurricanes and Colorado Avalanche.

Starrett, 24, took over the starting goaltender role with the AHL's Bakersfield Condors this past season. He left the Air Force Academy after the 2017-18 NCAA campaign to pursue a professional career.

Both players logged significant minutes in 2018-19 for the Condors, who won their division before being eliminated in the second round of the Calder Cup Playoffs.

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With multiple players to sign and limited cap space with which to work, Toronto Maple Leafs general manager Kyle Dubas might face some competition from other clubs looking to poach one of his young stars.

Leafs forwards Mitch Marner, Kasperi Kapanen, and Andreas Johnsson are all set to become restricted free agents July 1. As RFAs, all three would be eligible to sign offer sheets from other clubs should they be presented with them.

Dubas is prepared for that eventuality.

"You have to be realistic. You have to look around and identify which teams have the (draft) capital, which teams have the cap space, and which teams have the combination of both," Dubas told Mike Zeisberger of NHL.com.

Any team that submits a successful offer sheet for an RFA must provide compensatory draft picks to the player's original club based on a predetermined league-wide scale, with larger salaries carrying heavier draft-pick compensation.

"We want to be prepared as much as we possibly can," said Dubas, adding that some teams are non-factors due to a lack of cap space, lack of draft picks, or both. "We don't want to leave ourselves exposed to the actions of an irrational actor in the marketplace, another team that has the ability to do something that's crazy."

The young GM hopes to prevent any such situation by signing his players in an efficient manner.

"As a management group, our focus has been on finding contract resolutions with Mitch and Johnsson and Kapanen," he said.

Marner, Kapanen, and Johnsson all had career years in 2018-19. Marner led the Leafs with 94 points, while Kapanen and Johnsson each reached the 20-goal mark.

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The Edmonton Oilers have parted ways with skills and development coach Paul Coffey, according to Sportsnet's Mark Spector.

The report came shortly after Dave Tippett was introduced as the new head coach.

This is one of several management changes the team has made after finishing 14th in the Western Conference this season while missing the playoffs for the second consecutive year.

The three-time Norris Trophy winner was hired in January 2018 by former general manager Peter Chiarelli and joined former teammates Wayne Gretzky and Kevin Lowe - the current vice chairs of the Oilers. The trio won three Stanley Cups together in Edmonton during the 1980s dynasty.

Coffey was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2004.

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