Agreed it’s not as popular, but this isn’t the wnba. It isn’t the mls. I just read recently they brought in record sponsorship revenue this year. They just signed new tv deals. There is zero reason the cap should have jumped up on 3M in the last 5 years. That increase doesn’t even cover the barclay goodrow contract.
The Tampa bay lightning have done everything right. They drafted well and developed their own players. They won 2 Stanley cups. There is no reason they should be penalized for doing too good of a job. I understand and agree with having a cap. God knows the rangers were lost without one, but a $3m increase in 5 years is just dumb.
Two seasons shortened due to the pandemic and some of that played without fans is the reason the cap hasn't gone up much in 5 years. In exchange for the cap not going down because of the pandemic, the idea is that the lost revenue has to be paid back before the cap can go up.
It's tied to revenues and is supposedly a 50-50 split. During the pandemic seasons, the revenue brought in did not match the players contracts. The cap should have gone down, but no one really wanted that so they said we'll keep it where it is and when revenues rise again, the owners portion is owed a bigger piece of that until things are all paid back.
The sponsorship deals and tv deals etc are why people predict a big jump in the cap number in a few years once the lost revenue is paid back
I don't know how other leagues dealt with it, but the easy answer is probably always that they are on better financial footing than the NHL.
If you’re going to have a flat hard cap you cannot have guaranteed contracts. Just one doesn’t go with the other
what is a "flat hard cap"
a flat cap would be if the cap number doesn't rise and is always set at on thing. The NHLs cap is tied to revenue and rises (or shrinks!) dependant on that. It's been called a "flat cap" for the past few years because it has not gone up as was expected before the pandemic but for the reasons I outlined above.
it's a hard cap, but it's not inheritently a flat cap
sometimes I think people still don't understand that the pandemic is still having an effect on things.
I heard the last 32T podcast of this season. Elliotte Friedman was running through a list of teams and giving thoughts on each team. He heard the Rangers talked to Vancouver. He also heard the Rangers were talking to the Blues. Apparently, he asked the Rangers at the draft and they said nothing was going on. He said the Rangers and Blues have been talking for a while.
The Blues don't have many young D in the system.
Chris Drury talks to every GM about anyone who is possibly available. It doesn't mean anything is imminant or they're hot after something, it's him checking in just in case something is there.
