Escaping the salary cap

[895]

Is there a way that a team can avoid going over the cap by signing their star players to small contracts but giving them gifts under the table? For example next year, could Ottawa resign Heatley to a 3 million/yr for 5 years contract but agree to buy him a 20 million dollar house? Or maybe 20 million dollars worth of shares in the Ottawa franchise? This doesn't seem to be too legal to me, but what restrictions are in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening?

I seem to remember something about Detroit buying Fedorov a house, but that was before the cap era anyway.

Click to read more...

 

[Fugu]

No, cap circumvention by any means is not allowed.

I don't think the Wings needed to buy Fedorov a house. The armored truck with $20 MM on board was sufficient to let him buy any kind of house he wanted, and still have some left for the bank.

 

[Ted Hoffman]

Is there a way that a team can avoid going over the cap by signing their star players to small contracts but giving them gifts under the table? For example next year, could Ottawa resign Heatley to a 3 million/yr for 5 years contract but agree to buy him a 20 million dollar house? Or maybe 20 million dollars worth of shares in the Ottawa franchise? This doesn't seem to be too legal to me, but what restrictions are in place to prevent this kind of thing from happening?

Go read Article 26 in the CBA. That should clear the chances of any of these scenarios actually happening pretty quick.