The Era of "Superteams"...?

[Evergreen]

I do think we are trending toward a situation where players have much more control over where they play. Players will use whatever leverage they may have to force their way onto teams they want to play for. We'll see more prospects in NCAA, looking to burn a year off their ELC with a 10-game stink at the end of the season, and hoping to reach the negotiating table for their next deal as soon as possible.

Canadian teams will likely think very hard about whether they want to draft an American player. In fact all teams will be doing their due diligence to find out how willing/eager a player is to play in their market before drafting or trading for them.

This era is going to suck for Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, etc.

 

[HabsWhiteKnightLOL]

More like the ugly NBA era. Where the players decide where they go in a trade.

A terrible era which killed the NBA for me

 

[Kuz]

''Superteams''

Florida and Vegas sure. They propably define the era more because they are willing to trade anything outside of their roster that they can. Florida doesn't have 1st round pick in the next 4 drafts. Vegas doesn't have 1 round pick in the next 2, and they don't have a 2nd round pick in this next 4 drafts. They could keep trading picks years in advance but that does eventually have an expiration date. Any other team could do that too.

Are we really calling Tampa and Wild ''super teams''? Why exactly?

Agree Tampa are still good. Still they have been on the decline for some years. Hedman, McDonagh and Kucherov is getting older and Stamkos gone. Also Vasi, Guentzel and Point are getting to the age where they arent sure to be as effective the next years and should gradually become a little worse for each year. With few draft picks they will struggle to replace the talent.

 

[trick9]

Agree Tampa are still good. Still they have been on the decline for some years. Hedman, McDonagh and Kucherov is getting older and Stamkos gone. Also Vasi, Guentzel and Point are getting to the age where they arent sure to be as effective the next years and should gradually become a little worse for each year. With few draft picks they will struggle to replace the talent.

Tampa and Wild are both (still) good. That said i don't think players include those teams on their lists because they are ''super teams'' but because they are good and are actively going for it, unafraid of making splashes.

 

[TheRumble]

Something for you guys to consider that goes beyond American players wanting to leave Canadian markets:

The NHL cap:

2025-26 - $95 million, up from $88 million the year before

2026-27 - 104.5 million, up $9.5 million. 10%

2027-28 - The NHL is already projecting a $113 million cap and I honestly think revenues will be high enough that it might be a few million higher.

2028-29 - NHL is projecting $123 million

2029 and beyond - Since COVID ended, the cap has gone up an average of 6.8 million a year, round that up to 7 for math purposes and you're looking conservatively at a $130 million cap - that's $42 million higher than the 4 year mini-covid era we just witnessed where the cap was frozen. $7 million is an ultraconservative going forward. The Canadian TV deal that was recently signed was double that of the old one, the next US TV deal is also expected to be double (it's up in 27-28). Basically, the cap if you based it on revenues is not only going up, it's accelerating in the pace at which it is going up. The latest season we have publicly available data on team revenues for is the 24-25 season. ($88 million cap).

But the big difference between the NHL and the other leagues is that the NHL is extremely top heavy in per team revenues. Average revenue per team based on 2024-25 data was $248 million. Since revenue is tied to salary cap, we can just do some napkin math and estimate that the average revenue figure was

2025-26 - $267 million

2026-27 - $294 million

2027-28 - $320 million

2028-29 - $345 million

What's interesting is that based on the latest data we have - only 9 teams in the NHL actually made more than league average revenue in 2024-25: Toronto, Montreal, Edmonton, Rangers, LA, Boston, Philly, New Jersey and Washington. That number will dance around depending on how deep some teams go in a given year but of that list - Toronto, Montreal, New York Rangers and LA are comfortably blowing away the rest of the league and you can safely say they're gonna be doing that whether they make a deep run or not. The next tier down are teams that make more than league average but not by much and depending on how deep their playoff run is (Edmonton made the finals that year) can be a huge boon or they're making $10-30 extra million.

Where it's going to get interesting is if the cap continues to jump 7-10% every year, there will be more teams with internal caps. During COVID, there was at one point where something absurd like 26/32 teams were at or above the cap in terms of money being paid out. I don't think that will hold true in a few years, you'll be seeing a lot more teams that have internal caps because while average revenues have grown 10%, they might have only grown by 4% locally and suddenly have to pay 10% more for the same players.

 

[KingsFan7824]

I do think we are trending toward a situation where players have much more control over where they play. Players will use whatever leverage they may have to force their way onto teams they want to play for. We'll see more prospects in NCAA, looking to burn a year off their ELC with a 10-game stink at the end of the season, and hoping to reach the negotiating table for their next deal as soon as possible.

Canadian teams will likely think very hard about whether they want to draft an American player. In fact all teams will be doing their due diligence to find out how willing/eager a player is to play in their market before drafting or trading for them.

This era is going to suck for Winnipeg, Calgary, Edmonton, etc.

So, the 1990's. That's all you had to say.

 

[NYRfan85]

The 'Superteam' idea did not work for the Rangers ('97-04) when we had no salary cap...

 

[Ezpz]

Florida will go out first round. These Americans forget they got curbstomped and hellebyuck won the game singlehandedly.

 

[syz]

The 'Superteam' idea did not work for the Rangers ('97-04) when we had no salary cap...

Not enough palm trees.

 

[IdleTraveller]

How is this a different era? How unusual is it that players with NMC decide they don't want to resign with their current teams and want to sign with contenders? That's happened since forever. And 6-8 teams a year being in contention (20%-25% of the league) doesn't feel out of the ordinary either...

As a panthers fan, I don't see our team as a superteam: yes, we've got a stacked top 9 but we have serious holes to fill and not much in terms of assets/money to do it with. Most of our core we either drafted or got them from trades which were largely fair value at the time they were made. Yes, our players genearlly out-performed once they got here but that's hindsight speaking. I think only Marchand and Tarasenko were slam dunk fleecings due to where they wanted to go, and those were both deadline rentals. Matthew, Reinhart, Montour, Bennett, Jones, Luostarinen: I don't think any of those trades were lop-sided because the player "forced his way out". Matthew for Huby/Weeger was a fair trade at the time - Zito didn't force Calgary to then sign them both immediately to huge contracts. And I don't think Brady's trade is particularly lopsided either in terms of value.

This is all just cyclical - just wait until 2030 and I can assure you that the panthers, tampa and vegas will probably all be shit and rebuilding. And the Habs, Ducks, Sharks, Buffalo and Utah will be the "superteams" and we'll all be trying to figure out the narratives around that...

 

[ShootIt]

Remove the hard cap. Reduce revenue sharing. Leafs ( and a few others) have subsidized this league way too long now. Leafs can exceed $200M in payroll. Can Panthers? No.

You say this as if you are 20 years in the past and the Panthers are still a cap min team.

Panthers pay out Barkov, Tkachuk-Matt, Reinhart, Bennett, Verhaeghe, Marchard, Ekblad, Forsling, and Mikkola largely in yearly signing bonuses, which means only 1mil gets paid out over 84 games and the rest is paid up front, yearly.

Vincent Viola has a net worth closer if not over 8 billion. There's no $ issues in Sunrise.

But hey, the pre cap Leafs did so well with an unlimited budget.

 

[Jag68Sid87]

Everything is cyclical, and so is this. None of this would have even been a thing had Nathan MacKinnon not missed an empty net, or Devon Toews not realize that Connor Hellebuyck was in the crease area (and is pretty good) when he shot the puck.

Meanwhile, teams who want to win should take a gander at how Carolina runs their team.

 

[DuklaNation]

You say this as if you are 20 years in the past and the Panthers are still a cap min team.

Panthers pay out Barkov, Tkachuk-Matt, Reinhart, Bennett, Verhaeghe, Marchard, Ekblad, Forsling, and Mikkola largely in yearly signing bonuses, which means only 1mil gets paid out over 84 games and the rest is paid up front, yearly.

Vincent Viola has a net worth closer if not over 8 billion. There's no $ issues in Sunrise.

But hey, the pre cap Leafs did so well with an unlimited budget.

There are are wealthy MLB owners, they still don't spend recklessly above revenues. Your theory is baseless.

 

[periferal]

How is this any different than it's ever been?


Fluke cinderella runs do happen, but any given year there is a handful of teams that are cup contenders. Been this way forever

I think the point is...The gap between the few contenders and the rest of the league has never felt more massive.

 

[periferal]

Irrelevant. Revenues grew a lot early 90s.

Yankees and Dodgers are 2 of the biggest revenue teams in MLB. No salary cap. Yankees have had one sub .500 record in 34 years. Dodgers have had only 3 sub .500 seasons in same stretch. Doesn't guarantee championships, but it assures consistent contendng. No cap + high revenues = consistent winners.

I think if you gave Keith Pelley/MLSE a 200 million dollar cap and every other team half that he still couldn't build a winner.

 

[periferal]

''Superteams''

Florida and Vegas sure. They propably define the era more because they are willing to trade anything outside of their roster that they can. Florida doesn't have 1st round pick in the next 4 drafts. Vegas doesn't have 1 round pick in the next 2, and they don't have a 2nd round pick in this next 4 drafts. They could keep trading picks years in advance but that does eventually have an expiration date. Any other team could do that too.

Are we really calling Tampa and Wild ''super teams''? Why exactly?

I understand your point, but let's say the glue isn't dry on where this "superteam" think is heading. Answer the question this way...

If an all-star player has a full NMC and wants to be traded, which teams is he going accept a trade to?

The answer to that is not only very few, but it's basically the same group of teams.

 

[periferal]

The 'Superteam' idea did not work for the Rangers ('97-04) when we had no salary cap...

Again there's a difference between...

1. Having all the assets you need to win a Cup.
2. Knowing how to do so.

The Leafs right now are Exhibit A to that point.

 

[periferal]

Florida will go out first round. These Americans forget they got curbstomped and hellebyuck won the game singlehandedly.

So what happens when the Panthers trade for Hellebuyck?

 

[George Lebay]

It's Brad f***ing Tkachuk. People seriously need to chill out.

 

[Beukeboom Fan]

Feel like I’m missing something. What superteams? What are we talking about here?

The teams that have multiple superstars (Edmonton, Colorado) got there by drafting them.

Star players Brady Tkachuk/Quinn Hughes forcing their way to the Panthers/Wild respectively I would assume.

 

[BabMikecock]

I fail to see how BT makes Florida a super team

 

[Ezpz]

So what happens when the Panthers trade for Hellebuyck?

He'll choke in the playoffs cause he's only good in international tournaments.

 

[JaegerDice]

You say this as if you are 20 years in the past and the Panthers are still a cap min team.

Panthers pay out Barkov, Tkachuk-Matt, Reinhart, Bennett, Verhaeghe, Marchard, Ekblad, Forsling, and Mikkola largely in yearly signing bonuses, which means only 1mil gets paid out over 84 games and the rest is paid up front, yearly.

Vincent Viola has a net worth closer if not over 8 billion. There's no $ issues in Sunrise.

But hey, the pre cap Leafs did so well with an unlimited budget.

Leafs fans like him are obnoxious and Viola is clearly a great owner, but there is nuance to this. In 2024, the Panthers had a opertating income (Gross Profit - Operating expenses) of 10 million dollars. For a cup winning team.

Even if that tripled the next season when the won the cup again, that's not great. When the cap rises to 140 million in a couple seasons, if the Panthers were to continue being a cap team, they'd actually dip into negative operating income if they didn't achieve significant gains in profit.

If all Viola cares about is giving Panthers fans a winning team, that's awesome. But negative operating income will affect the year-over-year valuation of the Panthers as an investment property, and it will only grow as the cap rises if the Panthers keep spending to the cap.

 

[Miami Wice]

Salary cap matters very little right now. There's a handful of teams for whom it's even a concern, and even for them the question is largely "which 3rd liner do we trade to make room for the next superstar we want to sign".

No i think salary cap still does matter.

Teams with superstars like Leafs, Avs, Oilers, Lightning should be able to spend much more on supporting cast so they superstars like Makar, Mackinnon, McDrai, Matthews, Kucherov who are faces of NHL should have better chance of going deep in playoffs and competing against each other in all-time heavyweight tilts.

Look how much hype small market San Antonio- vs Oklahoma City got in NBA because it was deep in playoffs with trip to final on line, 2 great superstars playing each other, and having good supporting cast to make things feel entertaining and big.

 

[um]

Chicago in the early 10s was the closest we've gotten to a superteam in the Cap era. And they won their first cup as a very young team, so injuries and age didn't hurt them as much.

We'll see if an older and banged-up Panthers team can get back on track, but it's very hard to win as an older team. New and hungry teams will always be on the rise.