Seravalli: Cap Increasing Next Year

[mouser]

I wonder if, once it's confirmed, we'll see more of the RFA/pending UFAs sign their 8 year deals.
It would make sense for teams like Florida and Vancouver to know exactly what the future looks like before getting down to the brass tacks with Barkov, Hughes, and Pettersson.

The agents have known for a while that we're going to be seeing $1m/year cap raises for many seasons to come.

This isn't news to them.

 

[mouser]

Signing bonus money doesn't go into escrow, right?

Signing bonuses are subject to escrow.

 

[mouser]

Are there any other professional sports leagues that do this to their players?

The NBA uses escrow in a similar way.

 

[Number1RedWingsFan52]

Wow considering that it should be at least up to $90,000,000 right now. I guess $82,500,000 is alright it's not like Detroit is hurting for cap space.

 

[Zegs2sendhelp]

Perfect timing... now Toronto can give Rielly that 10.5 mil contract

 

[JAK]

This is going to help the Krakens.

FAs priced out in the next few seasons might find home in Seattle.

 

[Tryamw]

Or an extra million for GMs to hand out on a bad deal.

Hey.. They'd do that anyway... Look at the Seth Jones contract.

 

[123offtheglass]

Hallelujah

Phil The Thrill comes off the books too, so that's an extra 2.7m

 

[Apex Predator]

This was in the MOU that the NHL/NHLPA signed before they returned to play last season. It was item #2 on the list, spelled out exactly as Seravvalli wrote:

• For any League Year where Preliminary HRR is between $3.3 Billion and $4.8 Billion, the Upper Limit for the following League Year shall be between $81.5 Million and $82.5 Million on a pro rata basis (e.g., if Preliminary HRR is $4.05 Billion, the Upper Limit will be $82 Million).
• Once Preliminary HRR for the immediately preceding League Year surpasses $4.8 Billion, the Upper Limit will increase by $1 Million per League Year until the Escrow Balance is paid off

so does this mean that cap will never increase more than 1 million till all the escrow is paid back?

 

[leeroggy]

Players, not including Kane, better be saving their pennies for the billion in escrow that they owe ...

I suspect it’s withheld from their gross paycheck like a retirement account, wouldn’t make sense after tax because the owners would have taken the deduction the same year it was spent.

 

[Taylorst]

You do understand that the cap is tied to revenues, right? And that the NHLPA can agree to a bigger hike than revenues allow, knowing they will be paying it back in escrow? So what do 1990 salaries have to do with anything? There isn't a single player playing in the league whose contract was signed in the 90s.

Do you bother to comprehend what you've read ? Clearly the answer is no. What do 1990 salaries have to do with my post. The business model including salaries is all based on hockey players pay.

The nhl has had ample time under betman to generate more revenue , restructure how teams i.e salary cap do business.

Why is it the the nhl has a enimic revenue stream ? I mean hockey is more popular today than say 20 years ago.

The huge elephant in the room is many Canadian teams and several us teams are in horrible markets . Instead of adding a new franchise to fixing or eliminating the teams that struggle generating revenue like phoenix, Buffalo, Ottawa ect

 

[Taylorst]

To the bolded, I’d argue the talent and excitement of the game isn’t the issue for bringing in new fans, the incredibly exciting right now with rules and equipment changes over the last 10-15 years. Watching what McDavid, Draisaitl, MacKinnon, Matthews, Kucherov, etc. do a nightly basis is jaw dropping. Even the 3rd and 4th liners have serious skill in the lineup.

The NHL does a horrendous job marketing it’s star players and an even worse job officiating the game especially in the playoffs. Unlike the NBA and NFL, the NHL does nothing to protect its star players in comparison, for better and for worse.

I don’t mind letting some of the rough stuff go and letting guys battle out front in the playoffs, but the obstruction and water skiing type holding on star players in the playoffs makes some of the games nearly unwatchable.

You make some excellent points and I agree with most of it however many teams because of the salary cap or revenues i.e phoenix don't have the star players, but it goes much deeper than that which ties into your point about marketing. Bring back, the fighting and start holding teams gms accountable for there game plans to build and produce a quality team to watch nightly.

 

[Taylorst]

yes let's completely ruin the game by getting rid of the hard cap . then we can watch the same 6-8 teams in the playoffs every year like baseball. tell me that's a level playing field . it used to be the yankees or red sox starting pitching staff made more than 10 teams . now it's even worse . if your gm sucks at signing contracts get rid of him

Yes get rid of the hard cap amd start holding the owners accountable for producing a competitive team. If a team's market can't get generate revenue then move the team if it's the owners fault for not being committed to winning replace the owners.

Not every owner is committed to winning , some are in it simply to say I own a nhl team .
In the end winning generates fans , excitement and revenue

 

[T_Cage]

Or an extra million for GMs to hand out on a bad deal.

The Likeliest outcome

 

[jcs0218]

$1 million dollars is only 1/1000th of the money that Ed Belfour would need after a crazy night out on the town.

 

[ismelofhockey]

Do you bother to comprehend what you've read ? Clearly the answer is no. What do 1990 salaries have to do with my post. The business model including salaries is all based on hockey players pay.

The nhl has had ample time under betman to generate more revenue , restructure how teams i.e salary cap do business.

Why is it the the nhl has a enimic revenue stream ? I mean hockey is more popular today than say 20 years ago.

The huge elephant in the room is many Canadian teams and several us teams are in horrible markets . Instead of adding a new franchise to fixing or eliminating the teams that struggle generating revenue like phoenix, Buffalo, Ottawa ect

You're not making much sense, that's why it's hard to understand you. You didn't even finish your last train of thought. "Instead of adding a new franchise to fixing" makes no sense grammatically, and you forgot to let us know what they should have done instead.

There's also the issue that league revenues have more than doubled in the past 15 years alone. What's anemic about that?
NHL revenues grew faster than the NBA's over that time.
NHL revenues grew as fast as the MLB's over that time.
I can't find the numbers for the NFL.

So yes, hockey is more popular than 20 years ago. That's why it's generating twice the revenues it was in 2005, let alone 1990. Franchise values have also skyrocketed.

 

[Seras]

Leafs are saved.

They aren't even close to one of the worst off cap wise, give your head a shake

 

[66-30-33]

Cool! so...that 1M will be tied to Jack Johnsons 1.9M caphit buyout before it becomes 916K the 3 remaining seasons.

 

[mouser]

so does this mean that cap will never increase more than 1 million till all the escrow is paid back?

Yes

Technically, expect it to rise in the final season of escrow balance payback. As the surplus revenue that season will likely exceed the remaining escrow balance by some amount.

 

[Cogburn]

That covers Halak's 10 games played bonus.

So, there's that.

2.4 of buyout money to go, and 2.5 for Poolman's contract. Dream big, fans! Cause the cap to go up by 5 more million!

Edit: I thought I was being original, but it seems that HF is measuring the cap increase in terms of percentages of buy out. There's no way that's not linked.

 

[TBF1972]

some gms operate already like the cap was extended by 5m. for teams managing the cap well, this rumor is gold.

 

[Seachd]

Yes get rid of the hard cap amd start holding the owners accountable for producing a competitive team. If a team's market can't get generate revenue then move the team if it's the owners fault for not being committed to winning replace the owners.

Not every owner is committed to winning , some are in it simply to say I own a nhl team .
In the end winning generates fans , excitement and revenue

That sounds like 1990 thinking.

 

[Seachd]

The huge elephant in the room is many Canadian teams are in horrible markets .

Many, huh?

 

[Habs Halifax]

The agents have known for a while that we're going to be seeing $1m/year cap raises for many seasons to come.

This isn't news to them.

Yeah, this latest information is not new. It's been structured in the last CBA they finalized last summer right?

The area I have my eye on is that projected $4.8B market for this season. I don't blame them cause it's smart but I feel they are being very conservatives on their predictions. NHL was a $5.09B market before Covid an in early 2020 (before Covid derailed things), I recall a report saying the cap was expected to be in the $86M - $88M range or something like that. That would have indicated a higher market than $5.09B for the 20/21 season if things were normal right?

Also, If fans are in the seats and Covid is in the past (who knows how that plays out) and we get more revenue from Seattle and US TV deals, I think they destroy that $4.8B market prediction for the coming season. I believe there are some teams who have their eye on this as well and have decided to offer monster contracts this past off season with the optimistic opinion that the NHLPA balance will be paid off quicker than expected with a normal NHL.

 

[Hookslide]

"Cap increase ".........Jeremy Jacobs just passed out.