COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ten teams are cap compliant only through the use of long-term injury exemptions. Nine others entered the season with less than $700,000 in cap space. Two of those clubs — the Kings and the Senators — had to play their respective opening games with 17 skaters rather than the full complement of 18.
These truths, of course, represent the impact of the flat earth theory under which the cap has increased a total of $2 million over the four seasons that have followed the pandemic-shortened 2019-20.
The flat cap is a function of escrow debt that ballooned in 2019-20 and 2020-21. When it is paid off this season, the cap will begin to rise under terms of the Memo of Understanding to which the NHL and NHLPA agreed in July 2020.
When the debt is paid off this season, the cap will increase from its current $83.5 million to between $88 million and $89 million for 2024-25 before annual increases kick in as calculated by the “lag formula” as outlined in the memo.
(Just in time for the Rangers to accommodate Igor Shesterkin before he can hit the open market in the summer of 2025.)
The thing is, though, the debt may have already been paid off.
Figures have been impossible to come by from the authorities, but we’ve been told that there is approximately $45 million-to-$50 million in debt. At the same time, however, we have been told there may be up to $100 million of Hockey Related Revenue in dispute over three past seasons that are under audit by the NHLPA.
In other words, if a large enough portion of the funds in dispute are designated as HRR, the NHL already may be whole.
We have confirmed that the financials have not been settled for 2019-20, 2020-21 and 2021-22 and have been told that complexities attached to the COVID-impacted seasons have delayed resolution. Slap Shots was told by a well-placed source on Friday, however, that the process is accelerating.
We are told that neither side offered a settlement on the dispute. The league was adamant that no cap-related deal would be made without the union agreeing to elevate this season’s 6 percent escrow cap. The PA did not offer to take a discount on the funds in dispute.
So we’re here. Two teams have already played a man shy. More than half of the league in distress. Even if Ninth Avenue already has its money.
The NHL’s desire to stay out of the culture wars that consume our society only put the league square in the middle of them with Gary Bettman’s apparently unilateral decision to forbid players from using rainbow-colored pride tape on their sticks.
Heaven forbid!
The decision was reached, we’re told, without consultation with members of the NHLPA, who, I have argued in the past, should not be compelled to wear themed apparel, but now will be forbidden to do so.
This unforced error represents another backwards step for the NHL. With folks on the outside calling for civil disobedience, we’ve been told that there is belief — and hope — among players that there will be an accommodation for those who feel strongly about their role in promoting inclusion and acceptance within the sport.
Tampa Bay’s ruthlessness has always been an integral part of its success. Steve Yzerman was willing to throw hardballs at his players as general manager, as evidenced by Nikita Kucherov’s second contract.
Management threatened to place Friend-of-the-Column Dan Boyle on waivers if he did not waive his no-move clause in order to accept a trade to Dallas in 2008. They did the exact same thing to Ryan McDonagh within 48 hours after winning his second straight Stanley Cup, forcing him to accept a trade to Nashville in lieu of being placed on waivers.
And now they are back at it with Steven Stamkos, unable to guarantee a contract extension for the pending first-ballot Hall of Famer (and pending free agent) until management gets a better gauge on the Lightning’s competitiveness.
When you win as much as Tampa Bay has, much is forgiven.
Then again, maybe now that Mark Scheifele is off the board, Stamkos will become a Bruins’ rental target to fill their first-line center role.
One game and Tyler Motte is already “out indefinitely” with an unidentified upper-body injury. Talk about a player whose body just cannot cash the checks his spirit and intensity demand, that player is Motte.
There has been a fair amount of attention paid over the last few years to players being forced to defend themselves by fighting after taking out vulnerable opponents with crushing, legal hits.
Jacob Trouba comes to mind.
There is, I believe, a consensus within the industry that players should not be forced to drop their gloves after delivering legal blows. There’s a right way. That is it.
But … last Saturday night in Washington, with the Capitals taking on the Blue Jackets in their final exhibition game, T.J. Oshie blasted 18-year-old, third-overall draft selection Adam Fantilli to smithereens with a huge, open-ice neutral-zone hit when the lad had his head down.
Oshie skated away, there was no immediate response to a legal hit, albeit as crushing as this one was that was laid onto the face of future hopes of this wayward franchise. There was apparently no response at all to Oshie.
The first thought that came to mind as I watched the clip was, yes, this is hockey, players who deliver explosive, legal hits should not be required to fight in response.
But my next thought was, wait, are you kidding? What in the world was Columbus (not) doing? Of course a hit like that, albeit legal, required a response. This still is hockey. And this was not the right way to play hockey, not even close.
Finally, the Bruins have unveiled their centennial-themed uniforms, and boy was I shocked to see that the team wore an ad patch on its jersey 100 years ago.
