... and the fact people keep bringing up the pandemic as a excuse for GM's not having cap space. In 2006 the league established an escrow system in order to protect the owners from a situation where revenues would not follow projections. The league told everyone 15 years ago through the escrow system, it was one of the sticking points during the lock out/strike that the league would not budge on, don't expect your revenues to be on an upward trajectory for infinity, there is a possibility that revenues could stagnate or drop.
If the league felt so passionately about protecting the owners from flat revenues, why in F would GM's just ignore that warning and spend to the cap expecting to have more cap next year, and the next year and so on?
You couldn't predict a pandemic with any certainty but you sure as heck could predict a recession, they are cyclical, they are ever present in our economy. there were financial indicators back when Marner, Matthews and Nylander signed (
The Inverted Yield Curve and Recession | Robert P. Murphy), we knew a down turn in the economy was coming, we didn't know a pandemic would coincide at the same time. We know every decade there will be a stretch of 2 or 3 years when the economy is in a valley, we know revenues will be flat as a result. Over estimate your expenses, underestimate your revenue (income). It's budgeting 101.