The salary cap is unfair for many Canadian teams. The amount used in determining the cap hit is before tax... If it was an after tax number, then it would be better. It's funny how some people are quick to say that the Leafs are big blue and can handle any contract thrown their way but forget to realize that because of higher taxes, the players coming here get paid less than if they would have been had they been in a different team.
You realize that taxes in California and New York are just as high if not higher than in Toronto, right? That doesn't seem to stop players from wanting to play in those places.
Edit: e.g., the federal rate for income >$400k is 39.6% plus 1.45% medicare tax, CA state tax is 13.3%, so in California for 2013 a player would pay a rate of
54.35% on most of their income. Meanwhile in Canada, the top federal bracket is 29% and the Ontario rate is 13.16%, which is only
42.16%. In fact you can probably count on one hand the number of states where a player would have a significantly lower tax burden than Toronto.
Edit2: Not to mention real estate is much more pricey in the aforementioned places than in Toronto. $1m in a decent area around San Jose might buy you a small townhouse.
