What would your team look like If there was no salary cap

[Flukeshot]

Unrestricted free agency age was 32 then 31 the last decade before the salary cap. Now it’s 27 at most, with top players (people who start playing at 18) going UFA at 25.

The rich teams could scoop up all the olds (and they did!) but they were still mostly kept from using their cash advantage for getting players in their 20s. The only players they could acquire with their wallet were already well past prime and declining. That wouldn’t be the case now if ufa rules of today coincided with a no-cap league.

You got it. The UFA age reduction was the biggest concession to the PA to impose a salary cap. In hindsight it was pretty wild that a team could control the first 13 years of a players pro career.

It's hard to just remove one condition without the others.

I think a good question is how much would those top markets be spending? If the cap is 90+m next year and almost all teams above 80m in spending would we see those top teams around 200m?

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

They weren't super teams the last time there wasn't a salary cap...

They all spent, some smart, some not.

I think you would now have bifurcation based more on owner ego than market size. Several of the powerhouses were so because the owner wasn't running their team like a business. DET/COL were two examples with deep pockets from Little Ceasars and Walmart allowing huge payrolls. There has been a huge shift in NHL ownership, with most now being billionares. Back in the pre cap days you didn't have that in most markets.

 

[Super Hans]

McDavid would make $50m in Toronto and the Columbus Blue Jackets would make $40m.

 

[GeeoffBrown]

The Calgary Flames dream is just a roster of 23 Blake Colemans. All guts and B talent. The TV handsome underdog story.

The 2004 team nearly grit grapple grinded their way to a Stanley Cup and the franchise has been trying to do it again ever since.

OMG I'm trying to imagine what Brad Treliving would do with unlimited resources. Although, I think Flames would have an internal budget similar to the cap ceiling

 

[SomeDude]

Perennially in last place. Also in Kansas City.

 

[Chainshot]

The heated rivalry Toronto vs first round would get very spicy with their new additions of UFAs.


Call me crazy but I would say their biggest problem is actually developing their talent.

When the talent is left to its own devices without quality veterans, it tends not to develop to its highest potential.

 

[qc14]

I think the most interesting for the Caps would be in the 2015-2020 period where they wouldn't have had to move on from a lot of their great complimentary guys. MoJo, Green, Niskanen, probably all could've stayed and made those teams even better

 

[Ace]

Call me crazy but I would say their biggest problem is actually developing their talent.

I’d say that’s crazy since they developed several immediate cup winners the moment they were traded.

It’s almost as if surrounding them with cheap, unproven players forced to play above their ability every year is the difference.

 

[I Hate Philadelphia]

Well according to Leafs fans, this means they would become an unstoppable juggernaut and win the Cup every year.

Despite the fact that there was no cap until 2005 and they still went almost 40 years without a Cup anyway. Just ignore that part.

 

[BobRossColton]

I like how there's been only one roster posted..

 

[DingerMcSlapshot]

Nobody could afford tickets. Bad enough already.

 

[wasup]

MLB is a joke so why make the NHL the same joke .

 

[kmart]

 

[VivaLasVegas]

MLB is a joke so why make the NHL the same joke .

MLB was once America's premier sports league, but -- largely due to perpetual disparaties caused by the rich teams vs. poor teams -- is now well behind pro and college football and basketball, and nobody but hardcore fans even bother to watch it until the World Series. Note that the NBA is now going downhill too for similar reasons.

 

[Hunter368]

No cap it becomes a waste land league, not even worth watching anymore bc it becomes down to 5-8 teams out buying each other to get the cup, boring as watching paint dry.

 

[brentashton]

idk, depends where we would be relocated...

That goes for half the teams in the NHL. Love or hate the cap system, peeps should respect that it brings economic stability to a majority of the franchises (non tax and palm tree states aside).

 

[FlyguyOX]

Flyers would be in on every UFA

MLB was once America's premier sports league, but -- largely due to perpetual disparaties caused by the rich teams vs. poor teams -- is now well behind pro and college football and basketball, and nobody but hardcore fans even bother to watch it until the World Series. Note that the NBA is now going downhill too for similar reasons.

Agree completely.

The hard cap adds insane intrigue to the NHL

 

[GeeoffBrown]

Assuming an infinite budget, under Brad Treliving, the Flames would have the most expensive bottom 6 in the league, at least 10 depth defensemen and zero draft picks

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

What would your team look like if there was no salary cap? Don’t post unrealistic roster of 4 super star lines or something. Be as realistic as possible with it. What kind of a team do you think your team’s GM would put together. Obviously you can go by what players your team has had interest in, but because of salary cap, couldn’t get them etc…

That's complicated. First thing is that the league would be smaller by 8-12 teams.
I think the salary effects would mostly apply to the top 2 tiers of players. The top tier would be quite small, reserved for generational players, McDavid, MacKinnon, Crosby, Draisaitl, Makar, maybe as many as 2-3 others, maybe none. The 2nd tier would also be fairly small but might be as many as 30-40 players. Those 2 tiers would be making 2-3 times what they now get. Everybody else would probably be getting pretty much the same as they are now.

All of tier 1 would play for Toronto, Montreal, NYR or VGK. Maybe LAK get 1. Half to 2 thirds of tier 2 would be distributed among those same 4-5 teams. The rest would be scattered pretty evenly among the rest of the league. Maybe once in 10 years the Stanley Cup might be won by a team not on that list of 4-5.

 

[MrHeiskanen]

Dallas would dominate.

 

[Machinehead]

There would be sorely needed upgrades on Zibanejad and Lindgren instead of "oh well this is who we signed" and "he does the job for cheap" respectively.