Re: franchise mode: cap space
There is no reward to get extra cap space. Next years available cap space is just an estimate and is what you are allowed to use to sign your players during the season. They don’t officially announce what the salary cap for the next year will be until after the playoffs. I usually found it ended up being more when it was announced, and you get even more if a player from your team retires, but obviously those are not guarantees.
You will know exactly how how much space you have before the draft and the contract asks could be a little different, so it’s a good idea to find out what your players want beforehand and make any trades needed at the draft to be able to fit them in.
