Revenues increase, the cap ceiling goes up, ergo salaries go up. That magic number of $10M is going to be surpassed. Look at the counterparts in other sports. NHL players are well behind the salary scale of NFL, NBA, and MLB. Then again, those leagues do generate far greater revenue than the NHL.
And a guy like Drew in the open market can get more than $11M per year. You look at a team like Toronto and Edmonton, they'd would give him a ridiculous offer to sign on board. Imagine the Ducks going all out to sign Drew, or the Stars. These are teams who lack a defenseman of Drew's caliber, and they know he's the type of player who makes the four other skaters on the ice better.
Fortunately, the team doesn't have many holes that need to be filled with costly additions. By 2020, they'll have to address some significant UFAs with Toffoli, Lewis, Clifford, Muzzin and Forbort all having their contracts expire. The following year, Kovalchuk, Pearson, Phaneuf and Martinez will be UFAs. So that's a two-three year window for the team to compete, and by that time, some of the kids in the pipeline should have graduated to the NHL.
