That's a nice recap of 3 pages of comments - Thanks for sharing your perspective!

I think you are missing my point here. A GM's job is to choose the best direction for a team. Chicago did actively sell to potentially draft Bedard but lets not pretend that Dach was a major difference when they kept Kane until the deadline. I think they could have kept Dach and still finished 3rd last a year ago. In the grand scheme of things that was pretty insignificant. And based off the 21/22 season where Dach provided a whopping 0 Wins Above Replacement in 70 games, I think Chicago was more aiming for a total reset with the Dach trade. The issue with tanking is when a team does something extreme like Toronto and Robidas Island, or Edmonton the year before that. Making your team legitimately bad to do a full teardown is perfectly fine for the sport

The cost to play it is definitely a big factor.

LTIR

Instead of having a LTIR "pool", each instance of a player being on LTIR is its own "slot".
Mark Stone on LTIR can be replaced with one player with a cap hit up to $9.5M. Not four players with a combined cap hit of less than $9.5M.
If you replace him with a $1M player, you forego the other $8.5M.

It was never the intention for a team to "gain" cap space with an injury. The system is intended to allow teams to "replace" the missing player.
Obviously you can't account for the difference in the quality of the player lost and his replacement, but that's where your depth is tested and other players get their opportunity to step up and prove themselves.

The cap limit itself should apply to the active roster on any given night (including playoffs).
You could end up in a situation where you acquire Hertl to replace Stone, and then Stone comes back.
In that case you would have to choose who to dress to be compliant if you don't have the cap space available to accommodate both.

OT Points

A couple random ideas:
- Award 2 points for regulation win. 1 point for OT/SO win. Encourage teams to do their best to end the game in regulation. No more loser points.
- Extra Time. Periods don't end on a buzzer but on a whistle. Play continues until a natural stoppage. More last second heroics and potential to avoid OT. No more "did the puck cross the line before the buzzer". Teams might get to finish their power play instead of having it interrupted by the intermission, etc.

Tanking/Draft Order

Draft odds are "earned" by quarter. The final 22 games carry less weight.
If Chicago is last place in all 4 quarters, they get ~25% odds.
If Chicago and Anaheim alternate last place all season (starting with Chicago), Chicago gets ~20% and Anaheim gets ~18% (because the last quarter gets less weight).
If Columbus is 5th last for the first 3 quarters and Calgary hovered around 10th then sells off all their players at the deadline and drops below 5th, Columbus will still have higher odds than Calgary due to being in a lower standing for longer. (Say Columbus gets 7.5% in 6th, Calgary might only have 5% odds despite being in 5th.)

Turn on the salary cap in the playoffs....LTIR problem solved...

You seem to have contradicted yourself. It's the players that sign 8 year contracts because they don't want to move and have $$$$ security. These players that sign 8 year contracts that have the option of signing one year contracts or one year plus deals if they want.
But you're right about LeBron. Most NBAers aren't playing till age of 40, most of them have careers similar duration to NHLers, so players don't move as often.
The NBA sure has a complicated cap system, and it really affects trades also.

Funny how Robias is always mentioned. He had signed a three year contract with the Leafs. Played one full season. Broken leg in the second season. LTIR that that season.
So, it might be the last and third season that was questioned. But he was medically "unfit" to play in the NHL, by NHL doctors, so he spent one full on LTIR. I fail to see the conspiracy.

How do you account for cap accrual? The Hurricanes have a current daily cap hit of $86 million, but due to the way cap is calculated are still fine for the season because it is based on daily salaries. There are no salaries in the playoffs, so how do you calculate?

It's just called that because he was the first to disappear. Iirc Lupil and like 2 others did too

I would question Lupul more. But again, it isn't the (in this case) the Leafs decision. It's the NHL that has to confirm if a player is unfit.

Interesting that Robin Lehner has state he is returning to play in 24/25. Let's say how his 5m cap is handled. For Lehner's sake, I hope he is well.

simple, you don't. As you said, there are no salaries in the playoffs.

The current $83.5mil salary cap is essentially just a projection of what the total year end annual average salaries needs to be at and cannot exceed. The $86mil number is because, again as you mentioned, salaries are calculated daily, this is due to players contracts not being evenly spread throughout their deals (some are front loaded as an example). At the end of the day (or season in this case), CAR will be under the $83.5mil annual average limit.

So in the playoffs, just use the total of annual average salaries of players (their AAVs), and make sure they still stay below the cap limit. And operate injured reserve and LTIR same as during the season for "cap relief", but go off the annual averages again.


I could be completely wrong here, but I think it makes logical sense. The only hiccup I can think of that could throw a wrench in this is performance bonus overages. But I bet someone way smarter than me could figure it out.

Well Lehner had legal issues this season on top of his health

No, the current AAV of all the rostered players on the Canes is currently 86 million, so they would not be cap compliant for the playoffs. The team's total salary hit was around 82 million for most of the season, meaning they accrued additional space that allowed them to fit in Kuznetsov at 3.9 million without sending out salary.

The 83.5 mil is not based on when the salaries are paid per se, but who pays them when. The Hurricanes will have paid 82.8 million (per capfriendly projection), because Washington paid most of Kuznetsov's salary this year.

Making the playoffs require teams to adhere to a total team salary below the cap would kill the trade deadline.

In my opinion, I think to build a legacy (which is good for the game), I think you need to play your early career and prime with one maybe 2 teams. By the last few years of your career, you can play for as many teams as you want but I think playing most of your career for 2 (or ideally just the team that drafted you) builds the greatest legacy

1. 1-16 picks their matchup... while still having the 3 guaranteed division slots and 2 wild cards per conference. For example, Florida's at 1, so they can pick their matchup and Van could pick form the remaining teams and so on... On top of that, let's say Florida pick Vancouver, Vancouver can't pick their matchup as they've already been selected, so it goes to number 3.

2. OT goes from 5-4-3-2-1 on 5-4-3-2-1. For example, 1rst OT period is 5 minutes at 5 on 5, the 2nd OT period is 5 minutes at 4 on 4, 3rd OT period at 3 on 3 and so on until 1 on 1

3. Get rid of the pulling the goalie loss of point in OT. It's stupid

4. Refs post game conference... Get them to explain their decisions

5. Extra video crew looking at offsides/infractions to reduce time spent challenging, on top of this, if the "ref" can't see it in real time and not slow motion, to prevent the length of the review, then the call stands.

6. No TV blackouts

I have other ideas on how to fix LTIR but your solution seems fine. I would love the 3-2-1-0 point system, getting rid of blackouts and starting games on time also seems like a good idea

Disagreed. If LTIR money was used to acquire players, ban a LTIR player from entering playoffs. LTIR money acquired players may play, but LTIR player should be banned. Likewise, LTIR player may play, but LTIR money acquired players shall be banned.

Or just simply announce salary cap for playoffs

better than groaning on a battlefield with your guts falling out

what sociopathic naive children are in this thread?

In my opinion, the salary cap imbalance is the biggest challenge facing the NHL. Welcome to your new future where each of the panthers, lightning, knights, and stars have an extremely high chance of reaching the conference finals, and if you’re Canadian, go f yourself. This year, next year, the next, and the next. Meanwhile, franchises that actually make money are then paying into profit sharing while paying 20% more for each player contract. Every July 1st and trade deadline will be centric to the income tax free states, as most players seemingly want the benefits more than not.

The hard salary cap is an extremely valuable thing to the ownership groups.

Since it is skewing the parity between teams due to differences in taxation, lifestyle, the salary cap is actively making the league one-sided, the opposite of the public facing function of the salary cap. The thing that is thought of to exist to create parity is doing the opposite. The actual purpose of the cap is solely to reduce player compensation. Parity is not the goal or the actual result. It is the justification to suppress wages. It won’t exist if its justification collapses.

The owners will either address this fast or they’ll lose the hard cap. The league is already playing in a college stadium. I don’t think they can afford this path. I predict the nhl is bankrupt within 4 years of removing the hard cap. One offseason with a luxury tax is fine, maybe two. But greed and fomo by the 3rd will set so many precedents that 2/3 of the teams will have no viable financial path forward by the 4th.

1) I've been on here several times advocating for the Gold drafting system, that the PWHL just implemented for their league. We still want to give bad teams the top picks, while disincentivizing tanking and keeping the end of the regular season relevant for all teams. The bad teams still should get the best players to help them not be bad, instead of helping out the teams just outside the playoffs one year.

2) This would be interesting but I'm not sure if it would actually increase the amount of offer sheets.

3) I like this, but I might add an exception if the player was ineligible to come off IR at the end of the regular season but is eligible at the start of the playoffs, due to the requirement that a player must spend 10 games or 24 days on LTIR.

4) I don't think that matters that much.

Community Suggestions:

2) Regular season OT should be 10 minutes 3v3. I don't think you can do any more than that without Zamboniing the ice. Maybe you do a shootout after that, maybe you call it a draw. Also get rid of the forfeited loser point when you pull the goaltender.

3) Completely agree

4) Completely disagree. I think it's nice that exactly half the league advances past the regular season, and exactly half of the remaining teams advance through each round. A playin would create unnecessary playoff spots... the end of the regular season is basically an extended playoffs for these teams anyways.

5) I don't think there's anything wrong with the current video review system. I remember the first couple of years where some of the reviews took over 10 minutes, that was excessive, but I think most of them are under 3 minutes now. Perhaps adding an actual rule that says "reviews cannot exceed 3 minutes" would be a good idea, but the system does not need to be changed.

6) I've never really understood why they do the anthems before games for club teams. Obviously it makes sense for a national team, but there are players of so many nationalities in the NHL that don't hear their anthem before a game.

7) Totally agree, let people watch the games they paid to watch!

8) If you want to do pregame ceremonies and all of that, just tell people that you're starting at 7:25 instead of 7:00. The first or second season of the Golden Knights was awful for this, games would start half an hour late because of their pregame skits.

I'll also throw in a couple of my own:

Eliminate the trapezoid, let goaltenders take a risk and play the puck. Dump and chase is less interesting anyways, incentivize teams (even further) to carry the puck in and make a play.

Get rid of retention slots. Teams can retain on as many players as they can as long as their total retained salary is less than the current maximum (1/8 of the cap)

I think competitive balance interests should keep the same order (worst to best)...but lottery chances should be ordered by two-year point percentage (teams will less likely tank for two seasons). So lotteries will more likely be won by teams that deserve it.




I think pick compensation is fine as is...but teams should be allowed to negotiate an alternative (once player signs offer-sheet, the original team has a week to match or send pick...or request an alternative compensation).



Or just make cap applicable in playoffs. Based on daily number...cannot be more than 110% of cap on any day in playoffs.



Giving higher cap to high-tax areas would be a disaster. And league would never do that.
(And low taxes should also be rewarded)
If there is any adjustment, it could be on bonus/salary ratio to allow players to mitigate taxes better.

My solution would be for players on LTIR to be eligible for the playoffs, they would need to play in x number of regular season games (in April?). I agree the NHL has to find a way to encourage low taxes, but that would punish Canadian teams (who have the most fans) and I doubt such a system would make the federal or provincial governments reduce taxes in any significant way.

Thanks for sharing your perspective! I really like the suggestion about changing retention to unlimited retentions not exceeding 1/8th of the cap. Gonna add it to the list.