NHL should remove the salary cap

[lomiller1]

Honestly should be "drafted players" or 2-3 drafted players that are cap excempt. This would help all teams retain homegrown talent.

What player would ever be willing to play for the team that drafted them if every other team in the NHL could offer them more money?

 

[Sky04]

What player would ever be willing to play for the team that drafted them if every other team in the NHL could offer them more money?

Lots of players? Maybe they don't wanna play for a shitty team in a shitty city for more money, what kinda question is that?

 

[lomiller1]

This sounds very made up and I have no recollection of this being the case

Not made up. Before the cap nearly every team in the NHL lost money every single year. Many teams were losing tens of millions of dollars every single year. Even upper mid-market teams like Pittsburgh were in constant danger of folding unless they won every single year, and sports being sports not every team can win.

 

[lomiller1]

Lots of players? Maybe they don't wanna play for a shitty team in a shitty city for more money, what kinda question is that?

LOL. Are you serious? If the cap only applied to players your team drafted every single player you draft would be demanding a trade every single year so the cap no longer applied to them.

 

[Sasha Orlov]

Not made up. Before the cap nearly every team in the NHL lost money every single year. Many teams were losing tens of millions of dollars every single year. Even upper mid-market teams like Pittsburgh were in constant danger of folding unless they won every single year, and sports being sports not every team can win.

Damn must be true then if you say it is

 

[JadedLeaf]

Why bother? Your Leafs will win the same # of Cups as last time there was no cap...zero

Op is a canucks fan. Are you that lazy or were you just approaching your ten minutes without talking about the Leafs so you couldn't help yourself?

 

[TGWL]

This is like crying because 31 teams don't have a McDavid, every team in the league would benefit from being able to keep players they drafted longer. To make it fair across the board you could have a maximum cap limit to said drafted players ie. 8M exemption to players you drafted, GMs can use that space as they wish.

No, this is like telling you that it's simply a bad idea...

 

[Schennanigans]

I think there should be some franchise tag you put on a player that’s exempt from a cap hit.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

I think there should be some franchise tag you put on a player that’s exempt from a cap hit.

But it's still not exempt from the 50/50 HRR split, so it will still cost the players money via escrow.

Seriously, I can point this out all day and it's like people think 700+ players will enjoy paying out of their pocket to support no more than 32 guys whose yearly salary dwarfs the career earnings of many of the rank and file.

 

[ziggyjoe212]

Anyone who thinks the cap should be abolished clearly became ba fan after 2005. We lost a full season because of it.

It would create disparity like in baseball. Small market teams like Edmonton and Winnipeg would be a farm team for Rangers and Toronto.

League would be full of awful contracts, sending it to yet another lock out.

 

[RestlessYoungZero]

As a fan in a small market if the NHL removes the cap I am done with the league. I have zero interest in a league where only 5-10 teams have a legitimate shot at building competitive/contending teams.

 

[Hoek]

Now that my team is good I want no cap so we stop losing players and can keep reloading at the trade deadline. When they suck again, please reinstate it so we can get other teams players and prospects for cap dumps.

 

[tucker3434]

Anyone who thinks the cap should be abolished clearly became ba fan after 2005. We lost a full season because of it.

It would create disparity like in baseball. Small market teams like Edmonton and Winnipeg would be a farm team for Rangers and Toronto.

League would be full of awful contracts, sending it to yet another lock out.

I don’t think it’s as favorable for the big market teams as their fans think. The decade before the cap was dominated by Dallas, Detroit, New Jersey and Colorado, not New York, Montreal and Toronto. The biggest difference makers were retained by the teams that drafted them. The big market advantage only kicked in for those tier 2 UFA’s that weren’t going to lead a team to a cup anyway. And yeah, that still put a hurting on the mid market/mid standings teams which wasn’t great for the league’s financial health overall. The cap forced those big market teams to be patient and do real rebuilds which is the only reason they’re in a position to complain about the cap.

 

[Classic Devil]

I don’t think it’s as favorable for the big market teams as their fans think. The decade before the cap was dominated by Dallas, Detroit, New Jersey and Colorado, not New York, Montreal and Toronto. The biggest difference makers were retained by the teams that drafted them. The big market advantage only kicked in for those tier 2 UFA’s that weren’t going to lead a team to a cup anyway. And yeah, that still put a hurting on the mid market/mid standings teams which wasn’t great for the league’s financial health overall. The cap forced those big market teams to be patient and do real rebuilds which is the only reason they’re in a position to complain about the cap.

Players became UFA at 31. It's not comparable.

 

[BrockLobster]

The NHL almost went under until the cap came. So you think theyre gonna bring it back??

 

[CTHabsfan]

I don’t think it’s as favorable for the big market teams as their fans think. The decade before the cap was dominated by Dallas, Detroit, New Jersey and Colorado, not New York, Montreal and Toronto. The biggest difference makers were retained by the teams that drafted them. The big market advantage only kicked in for those tier 2 UFA’s that weren’t going to lead a team to a cup anyway. And yeah, that still put a hurting on the mid market/mid standings teams which wasn’t great for the league’s financial health overall. The cap forced those big market teams to be patient and do real rebuilds which is the only reason they’re in a position to complain about the cap.

Montreal was not a big-market team in the decade before the salary cap. The Canadian dollar was weak and the Montreal Canadiens were losing players and replacing them with has-beens and never-were type players. Remember Doug Gilmour, Joey Juneau and Andreas Dackell?

 

[Profet]

The players would love it, the owners would be against it.

I think a compromise can be made with a 'franchise player' tag where you can designate one player who doesn't count towards the cap (but is still limited to the max 20% cap hit under the CBA). Every team gets one. The owners might agree to it because it gives them 1 extra star per team, the players would like it because the top players get paid more and there's more money to spread out on the rest of the team.

There probably would be opposition from poorer teams like Arizona, because if you end up with a superstar, you have no reason not to give them 20% under the franchise player tag. You might see more movement among star players too because you can involve your franchise players in trades and just designate another.

I'm fine with this, provided that player is drafted by the org and never trade/signed elsewhere.

The league needs to make home grown talent important and allow for each franchise to have at least one player that fans can cheer for through their career.

Give superstars a reason to resign with their draft team.

 

[Here I Pageau Again]

No thanks.

I know what no cap would do to a team I love and I'm not for it. If a team can't manage well with a cap, that's not my problem, fix your management. I like having more parity in the league personally.

 

[SensontheRush]

Another brilliant idea from the people who brought you "don't you want to be EXACTLY like everyone ELSE?"

 

[tucker3434]

Players became UFA at 31. It's not comparable.

How many elite guys make it to UFA between the ages of 27 and 31? With only rare exceptions, the stars get paid and you make the budget work around everybody else. No reason to think that wouldnt continue to be the case

 

[614 CBJ]

be the fastest way to completely ruin the sport

 

[KingsFan7824]

I don’t think it’s as favorable for the big market teams as their fans think. The decade before the cap was dominated by Dallas, Detroit, New Jersey and Colorado, not New York, Montreal and Toronto. The biggest difference makers were retained by the teams that drafted them. The big market advantage only kicked in for those tier 2 UFA’s that weren’t going to lead a team to a cup anyway. And yeah, that still put a hurting on the mid market/mid standings teams which wasn’t great for the league’s financial health overall. The cap forced those big market teams to be patient and do real rebuilds which is the only reason they’re in a position to complain about the cap.

Dal, Det, and Col had owners willing to spend whatever. As did the NYR, Tor, Phi. Although, if I remember, the Stars owner didn't have the money to spend, or something. StL was always a wild card, even back before the first lockout. They never really got cheap. NJ ended up as the model small market/budget team, but they got very lucky with the Stevens situation.

Player movement was a ton more fun though.

 

[peconcan]

I think the cap should be lowered but players you draft don’t count against it. Reward teams for good scouting/drafting

 

[Siludin]

Keep the cap, abolish the draft.

 

[Golden_Jet]

Keep the cap, abolish the draft.

Oof,
Wonder why the NBA, MLB and NFL don’t do that.