I've often heard it suggested that the cap floor was a concession to the PA in negotiations, but of course this is nonsense. The floor, along with the ceiling, were the boundaries of the Payroll Range system, one of the 6 salary cap models proposed by the owners, and in the end, their chosen one.
So i dont think you can isolate the floor and say, is it failing. Perhaps we more honestly can ask, was the owners unilateral decision of a payroll range system defining the budgeting parameters for an escrow backed cost certainty system a failure in light of the realities of the markets.
It seems totally ridiculous to me now to hear fans, after spending years arguing for the perfect utopian cba, a triple cap with linkage, now suggesting the problem with utopia is that revenues kept growing, and so players need to take less to make up for it. That sounds like my strategy of coming to work half an hour late, and making up for it by leaving half an hour early.
Are we witnessing the failure of the cap floor to do what? To live up to the NHL generated propaganda and fan idealism it was sold with? No doubt!
Lets also remember that the owner created revenue sharing system is designed to increasingly decrease the help to struggling markets if they cant keep up with the league. So contrary to fan expectations that this was all designed to save all teams, it seems actually designed to ensure that if they cant keep up, they relocate or fold.
If the expectation was that of the propaganda, such a result will likely appear as a failure of the cap floor. And to fan desires, it probably is. But to the owners, looking at the system they wanted in place, it doesnt appear a failure of its intentions at all.
Also, the players arent likely to care if the floor is dropped, because they in the end get 57%, (should be at least 59% by now) of revenues, regardless of where the floor is set. Dropping the floor would have the effect of dropping actual spending, which reduces the amount of escrow, which is where most of the so called "revenue" that the owners share with the small markets comes from.
So as can be expected from a square peg in a round hole cap system, not all will turn out exactly as first thought as the market pops out in unexpected ways.