Mind the Cap

[Wisent]

OK, let's try these numbers, to see if you guys feel better:

$38M cap, with a 25 percent bump for the franchise player....maxes him out at $9.5M a year....
TOTAL CAP: $47.5m
Would that make it work?

kpd/hoh

Some owners were complaining that the 42.5 the NHL offered this season was too high already. The hard cap you are offerning is higher (basically your idea boils down to a 47.5 hardcap). With the loss of the season I imagine the offer wouldn't exceed 40 million, wouldn't be surpised to see it considerably lower. Basically I like the idea, would be something new,just don't see it happening. That is if there is no fundamental change in the stance of the owners.

 

[wazee]

See... but the loopholes can be closed..

In my idea, the franchise player would be all or nothing.. you give him a contract.. and you are stuck with him.. and that contract for the duration of the contract.. no trades, no re-signing, no restructuring.. he is your franchise player... for better or for worse... thus, no loop-hole...

Its about putting a degree of risk on the contract.. making teams really think about it...so that there is not that rush to sign the best player for the most money.. its about signing the right guys to the right amount of money..

*edit*

Regarding the rollback..

Since alot of contracts expire this year, I think the rollback could be scaled back a bit.. Say 20% for next seasons contracts..Cutting back to 15% for the next year.. 10% for any remaining years under contracts... Makes a deal like this easier to stomach for the PA..

Loopholes can be closed. But not until the next CBA...and I do not want to think about going through this again anytime soon. If the NHLPA would be drawn to a cap with exceptions, it would be because they saw the exceptions could be exploited in a way that would be good for them, but bad for the league. I would not be totally surprised to see exceptions like a franchise player built into the final deal but it is an undesirable solution, IMO.

 

[Drury_Sakic]

See... but it CAN be a loop-hole free deal..

Its for one player... one contract.. no way to end the contract or trade it away untill the length of the contract runs out... Make it HAVE to be a 3 year deal, with club options on the 3rd and 4th season.. you don't have any salary funny stuff with players being switched in and out year after year(i.e Blake takes 1 mill one year, while sakic gets the 10, then the next year blake gets the 10 while sakic gets the 1)

If a team really wanted to mess with that over long term.. fine.. but don't come back to me if they get burned by it(i.e a player getting hurt making 1 mill, expecting to get the 10 mill the next year, or a player taking the 10 mill and leaving as a UFA rather than taking the 1 mill deal) and a 3 year running period of being the Franchise player locks some term of permance into the deal..


Clearly the NHL's offer of 42 mill is not coming back.. but a deal like this, perhaps with a lower Hard Cap around 32 mill would still work for the NHL ownership..

or again, if the players offered it.. and the owners refused, its one more bullet in the chamber of the Impass defense gun..