what part are you not getting, is it accidental, or intentional?
players care about their TAKE HOME PAY.
in Tampa they take home more $$ then in Toronto dollar for dollar because of taxes.
SO, Tampa can pay a player LESS, and they take home More $$ and that reduces the Cap Hit for Tampa unfairly compared to high tax cities.
if 9.5 and 11 million have the same take home pay, a player is willing to take the lower cap hit, because the bottom line is identical. ...$$ in their pocket.
Teams like:
Montreal
Toronto
Vancouver
Winnipeg
New York (bot teams)
Anaheim
...all have high tax rates
Tampa is at about 18% lower tax rate, lowest in the league along with Dallas, Florida, Vegas etc
So Tkachuk for example and his $9.5 salary would need to be paid 11 Million in Toronto/Montreal etc to take home the same $$$
Calgary has a slightly lower tax rate than Toronto (still high) and they would still have to have paid TKachuk 10,550,000 to match his Florida $$
and when you sign a contract matters too, as much as where. a contract from a few years ago is not comparable to someones current/new contract, only % of the cap at time of signing is comparable, and even that can be skewed by what he cap was, and the % available at the time
I can do math, but your argument is still flawed. The NHL instituted a hard cap, which means all teams are forced to operate under the same restrictions, regardless of state tax laws. Unfortunately, the trickle down effect results in certain players making less take home pay in certain cities, that's just reality, period. It's not a reflection on what a player
"wants to take home" because team's can only pay so much to retain players.
What's also reality is that teams cannot win championships if they have multiple players gobbling up
extreme amounts of their cap -- it doesn't matter if they play in Florida, Toronto, Winnipeg, Philly, or on the moon -- there's a limit to what players can make in order for their franchises to be able to ice an competitive team.
Don't you think Kucherov could have demanded more than 9.5 regardless of the state tax? Of course he could lol. He just won the freaking Hart and lead the league with 126 points before he signed for 9.5 a pop. He could have demanded 12 million and it may have been justified. And guess what, that would have been
more take home pay because he works in Florida. But Kucherov didn't demand 11 or 12 because he knows there's a cap, and he'd rather win Cups and play on a team with other talent like Hedman, Stamkos, Point, and Vasilevskiy than price himself off the team.
It's the same reason why some of the Avalanche players took less to keep the core in tact. It's why Makar
"settled" for a 9 mil cap hit when he easily could have demanded 10.5 or 11. If Matthews is more obsessed with
take home pay than winning a Cup, he should tell Toronto that he'll only accept a trade to a state with low taxes, no exception. Because the reality is Matthews
can't have his cake and eat it too. He can't be paid 14 or 15 million then choke in the playoffs and blame it on the Leafs not being able to surround him with better talent because he wanted too much of the cap. As a player, if you want to win in a hard cap league, you will need to sacrifice some scratch so your team can spread the money around, period. State taxes are irrelevant.