Well duh, of course every bonus is included under the cap, it would be an utter joke otherwise. The cap would be rendered virtually useless. Players would just ask for ridiculous bonuses money in every contract negotiation.
Only thing I don't like is players on the injured reserve list included. You want to be able to acquire a player if one of your guys is out for the year and you're at the cap limit. You also want to be able to call back players on 2-way contracts for temporary injuries. So a player making $50 000 in the minors might be making $800 000 when he plays in the NHL, becoming a cap issue for the team that tries to bring him up (of course, he'll only make a fraction of that salary if it's only a temporary stint). Having players under the injured reserve list count in the calculation of the cap doesn't serve the GMs. They end up with absolutely no margin of error.
As for the tax, it is perfectly logical and a must if you want to talk about revenue sharing down the road. Players have pushed for it all along. How exactly would this play against them? What would have likely happened is small market teams budgeting as if 36M was the hard cap and bigger markets going all the way up to 42M, which is exactly what the players were hoping for.
The over $75 000 minor leaguer's clause is a bit weak also.
just as the league has utilized similar agreements to mislead individual players and agents — let alone the public and the media — for more than two years.
Sure they did Larry. They are all evil worshippers afterall. It goes without saying Brooks knows full well what he's talking about. One of the most objective journalists out there. If only every others like McKenzie could put their agendas aside in the interest of information like Larry does on a regular basis.
As such, the PA computes the actual NHL-roster cap number as approximately $39M per team — if not less — under the last proposal.
Hmmm, how so? The only thing going against a team's cap per say is the minor league clause. Is there really 3.5M worth of $75 000+ contracts per team for players currently in the AHL? Silly me, there must be, Brooks just reported it.