The loophole that helped the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and the Vegas Golden Knights earn a competitive advantage and win multiple Stanley Cups is finally closed.
No, we’re not talking about removing the tax breaks for teams that play in states with no income tax.
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But the NHL and NHLPA’s reported decision to immediately implement several new changes to the collective bargaining agreement, including a playoff salary cap, could be just as instrumental.
It’s about time. Some would argue, this move took way too long.
After all, how many championships have been won and lost because of a salary cap loophole?
Going back a decade, when Chicago‘s Patrick Kane broke his collarbone a week before the 2015 trade deadline and then remained out until the start of the playoffs, teams have put an injured player on long-term injured reserve, and they have only returned to action in the post-season so the team could add a player and avoid exceeding its cap space during the regular season.
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It was a smart move. It was also not in the spirit of the CBA, which aims to provide a level playing field for all 32 teams. Of course, all rules are meant to be broken, or at the very least manipulated. And it didn’t take long for teams to realize that being cap compliant only applied to the regular season. If you had a player who was injured, there was nothing stopping a team from waiting until the playoffs to re-activate him from injury, as many teams took advantage of.
In 2020-21, the Tampa Bay Lightning won back-to-back championships while being $18 million over the cap after Nikita Kucherov returned for the playoffs after sitting out for the entire regular season while recovering from surgery. Kucherov, who later trolled critics for his well-timed return, led the playoffs with 32 points.
Two years later, the Golden Knights exploited the same loophole when Mark Stone took until Game 1 of the playoffs before finally returning from back surgery. The NHL investigated Vegas, which was able to acquire Ivan Barbashev, Teddy Blueger and Jonathan Quick, but found no wrongdoing. A year later, Stone remained out again, allowing the Golden Knights to acquire Noah Hanifin, Anthony Mantha and Tomas Hertl at the trade deadline.
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This past season, Matthew Tkachuk curiously also remained out until the very start of the playoffs following an injury at the 4 Nations Face-Off. His long-term absence allowed the Panthers to acquire Brad Marchand at the deadline.
None of that can happen again.
New NHL CBA Changes Take Effect Immediately—How They Impact the Maple Leafs This Season
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Under the new CBA rules, teams must be under the cap limit of $95.5 million for the playoffs. Previously, the salary cap only applied to the regular season, allowing teams to activate injured players once the post-season began. Now, teams will have to submit a playoff roster, where the aggregate cap hit of all active players cannot exceed the upper salary cap limit.
Which means, if you had suspicions that Vegas would activate Alex Pietrangelo for Game 1 of the playoffs after having already announcing it’s unlikely his body will recover to the standard required to play NHL-level hockey — think again.
Those days are over.
Then again, with one loophole closing, chances are another will open. Just give it time.
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