News: Cap Concerns Reason for No Trades - Cap Could Be As Low As 80M

[Byrddog]

The cap has made the NHL a complete snooze-fest when it comes to trades. Easily the worst of the major leagues for off-season excitement.

Consider this the total revenue in the NHL is a drop in the bucket compared to other leagues where there always seems to be cap available to pay players. The NBA has a 109 mil cap for a team of 12 active players and 1 inactive or baseball with no cap with one team having a budget of 268 mil for an active roster of 25 players. The NFL has a cap of 188 mil and was hiked 11 mil from last year.

The league has tried to grow the league but the growth rate? "The Business of the NHL As Hockey's Popularity Slips In U.S. ... Hockey might be the most expensive sport to play in the U.S., giving it the biggest barrier to entry. This has hurt the NHL's popularity as it loses fans every year".

 

[Flukeshot]

No it's the league's problem because the league came out and said 83 million and then at the last minute changed that and downsized the original number and stated it could go down even more.

Unfortunately 500k is a huge difference determining contracts , players , moved, and prospects.


It's just awful leadership coming from the league once again.

The cap numbers should be notified January 1st of each year period. In any other business they all have deadlines to meet to be successful.

It is indeed a business projection and a consumer entertainment driven industry. I have been apart of businesses that miss or exceed the next month's projection by more than 20% as not all businesses are forecastable.

Ultimately if you want someone to blame, blame the smaller market teams that knocked out the big guys. Revenue in May and June has clearly come in far below forecast. It can easily take more than two weeks for a business to close the books.

More so blame the PA for not locking in their escalation amount.

I'm sure the league office would be fine saying, okay cap is 82m but expect a huge escrow.

 

[JESSEWENEEDTOCOOK]

Oh bull****
Did you watch the NBA draft?? How many teams drafted players with picks they had traded but cant officially move until July 6th??

The NBA draft is a ridiculous incoherent cluster.

Ya I did, it was a billion times more entertaining

It’s dumb but that’s more a quirk. Not having the salary cap set for the draft is a blackeye on the NHL.

 

[Dr Quincy]

You are spot on. the Cap was put in place to level out the talent, keep smaller markets viable and grow the size of the league. It has done some of that but it has not reigned in the inability of teams to overspend on contracts.

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you think the cap should be lower? Why? If the cap has risen it's because revenue has risen. Where's the problem?

 

[Barry Amsterdam]

Can someone explain to me why the players wouldn’t want the cap to go up?

 

[48g90a138pts]

Can someone explain to me why the players wouldn’t want the cap to go up?

Because if the cap goes up and league revenues don't or go down, then the players lose more of their money to escrow payments.

 

[Dr Quincy]

Oh, and fans have every right to complain about salaries and the way their teams do business. Why? Because at the end of the day, it all trickles down to the fans who foot the bill.

Player X demands $8 mil a year. Team X feels they need to pay him that because he sells jerseys or helps the team win. Team X, in turn, raises ticket prices, concession prices, parking, etc. They ultimately pass the cost down to the fans.

Sure, I guess a reply can be: "Fans can choose not to pay prices or stop being a fan of the NHL." But, is that really a viable answer? Or should it be? I mean, where does it end? We're already to the point where an average family cannot take 4 kids to an NHL game in certain cities, pay for parking, food, or a souvenir.

The cap was put in place to reward teams who can draft well, and hopefully give them a chance to cultivate and retain their own players, while possibly adding a couple of free agent pieces. The cap was put in place to reward UFA's (responsibly) but protect the teams against their RFA's. If anyone hasn't been paying attention, the RFA game has completely flipped the NHL and the cap on their heads. RFA is the new UFA. The minute the Oilers started paying McDavid and Draisaitl massive dollars, the table was set. The snowball started. Then you look at Eichel, Nylander, Matthews, etc. Marner is looking for 11+ and he's 22 freaking years old and has won nothing. Word in Philly yesterday was that Provorov is seeking north of 8, meanwhile the Flyers have stunk since he's been on the roster.

If fans don't recognize there's a problem here, I don't know what to say. Now we're into the draft and the league still has no idea what the cap is?? This is amateur hour at its finest.

I honestly think you don't understand the point of the cap or how it works.

It doesn't matter what UFA Player X demands or gets. That has no effect on your ticket or hot dog price. A team knows how much $ it's going to spend, whether it spends $8m dollars on a mediocre C or not, it's going to have the same total salary.

The cap is set by revenue. If you lower the cap, and lower the salary, your prices aren't going to go down a cent. What will happen is that the same $8.50 hot dog is going to go to a billionaire instead of being split by a billionaire and a millionaire.

Why that seems to be important to you.... I don't know.

 

[Barry Amsterdam]

Because if the cap goes up and league revenues don't or go down, then the players lose more of their money to escrow payments.

Don’t understand the escrow payments but thanks. I’ll do some research

 

[48g90a138pts]

Don’t understand the escrow payments but thanks. I’ll do some research

Part of the players salary goes into a escrow account. At the end of the year players get paid back a portion of that escrow depending on how league wide revenues were.

The players and owners agreed to a 50/50 split of revenues.

 

[48g90a138pts]

Don’t understand the escrow payments but thanks. I’ll do some research

So if the NHLPA is deciding not to increase the cap that means they're losing much more of their salary to escrow. Also means league wide revenues aren't going up at the same rate as what the cap is increasing at. If the revenues were growing faster then they would get all their escrow back and we'd see the cap increasing faster.

 

[Barry Amsterdam]

So if the NHLPA is deciding not to increase the cap that means they're losing much more of their salary to escrow. Also means league wide revenues aren't going up at the same rate as what the cap is increasing at. If the revenues were growing faster then they would get all their escrow back and we'd see the cap increasing faster.

Thanks!

 

[Dr Quincy]

Man this hold up by the NHLPA on the escrow is really restricting trades.

 

[Taylorst]

It is indeed a business projection and a consumer entertainment driven industry. I have been apart of businesses that miss or exceed the next month's projection by more than 20% as not all businesses are forecastable.

Ultimately if you want someone to blame, blame the smaller market teams that knocked out the big guys. Revenue in May and June has clearly come in far below forecast. It can easily take more than two weeks for a business to close the books.

More so blame the PA for not locking in their escalation amount.

I'm sure the league office would be fine saying, okay cap is 82m but expect a huge escrow.

Your making some great points, that I as well agree with. These smaller markets need to pull in and exceed their value.


The problem with a lot of these smaller markets has been an ongoing problem for many years and yet the NHL is way to quick to expand into markets just for expansion sake, without addressing some of the root core problems mismanagement, ridiculous business plans and just flat out owners/investors who can't truly manage and run their new found teams successfully.


I don't know why the nhl is moving into Seattle knowing full well Arizona has been a round and round dumpster fire , and they hid the sale of the team until now.

Instead of creating a brand new team , they should have moved Arizona out or ruled with a iron fist over that market to make sure it is viable , competitive and well run first.

 

[Taylorst]

Man this hold up by the NHLPA on the escrow is really restricting trades.

I agree with you. But the league and the nhlpa,,should have weeks or months ago set a hard deadline so it would not have any negative impact on on this weekend draft and season kick off.

 

[Dr Quincy]

I agree with you. But the league and the nhlpa,,should have weeks or months ago set a hard deadline so it would not have any negative impact on on this weekend draft and season kick off.

Just to be clear, my post was sarcastic.

 

[Deadpool8812]

why wouldn't they release the cap number before the draft?

 

[Taylorst]

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you think the cap should be lower? Why? If the cap has risen it's because revenue has risen. Where's the problem?

I think the problem has been the league and the players are all to blame for declining revenues. You have owners who year after year refuse to build a solid foundation, scouting, development, marketing , and then the desire to actually want to win.

Then you have players whom are greedy , or in their contract years they perform and once handed their next contract their MIA. Also the salary cap becomes more of a number which in turn means teams are more focused on that number than on building a competitive team and it shows with a lot of aging players on bad contracts and kids whom quite frankly either are rushed up to play and lose time developing , poor scouting , and kids who will never be true NHL talent players.

 

[Byrddog]

I'm not sure what you mean. Do you think the cap should be lower? Why? If the cap has risen it's because revenue has risen. Where's the problem?

Revenue has risen while fanbase for the league has fallen each of the last 6 years. The result has been inflated ticket prices in the successful markets and continued discounts in the rest of the league. This is not a model that will sustain, this is not the federal government where you can spend endlessly without consequence. On the current path in 10 years there will be a redaction of teams which some people think should happen now anyway. A couple years ago there was an article in Forbes that pointed out the league could only support 18 teams. Not sure if this is what we want the sport to look like.

All of this for watered down rosters of players who have artificially inflated salaries.

 

[Taylorst]

Just to be clear, my post was sarcastic.

Lol well I liked your post it was spot on in those points. Lol

It's fair to say the league and players union all share In the blame . From the decline in the product, revenues , unwilling owners , owners who over pay etc.

 

[Dr Quincy]

Lol well I liked your post it was spot on in those points. Lol

It's fair to say the league and players union all share In the blame . From the decline in the product, revenues , unwilling owners , owners who over pay etc.

I don't think there's any blame, because I don't think there's any problem. This thread started because of the lack of trades.

One of the biggest names in the league just go traded and the biggest impact team just traded a player. Other names being rumored to be on the move today. So the whole premise of this thread is now obsolete.

 

[Taylorst]

Revenue has risen while fanbase for the league has fallen each of the last 6 years. The result has been inflated ticket prices in the successful markets and continued discounts in the rest of the league. This is not a model that will sustain, this is not the federal government where you can spend endlessly without consequence. On the current path in 10 years there will be a redaction of teams which some people think should happen now anyway. A couple years ago there was an article in Forbes that pointed out the league could only support 18 teams. Not sure if this is what we want the sport to look like.

I bet their is a lot of truth to that article. The league allowed Winnipeg in the mid 90s to relocate to Arizona and that move has been a disaster ever since. Also Arizona was in bankruptcy just a few years ago and now it's just been someone again,

That tells you a lot about how the league markets it's franchises and doesn't hold them accountable to any set standards.

 

[DudeWhereIsMakar]

Once it's officially announced I think a ton more trades will happen.

 

[torniojaws]

Once it's officially announced I think a ton more trades will happen.

It seems the GMs know now (Marleau, Subban, Miller traded).

 

[mouser]

So if the NHLPA is deciding not to increase the cap that means they're losing much more of their salary to escrow. Also means league wide revenues aren't going up at the same rate as what the cap is increasing at. If the revenues were growing faster then they would get all their escrow back and we'd see the cap increasing faster.

League revenues have been increasing faster then the cap in recent years. Which is why the % of money players lose to escrow has been declining.