NHL finding way to make cap bump come with penalty
MARTY Walsh officially takes the reins of the NHL Players’ Association on Monday, and I can assure you the former U.S. Secretary of Labor’s first order of union business will not be negotiating an increase of the 6 percent escrow rate next season in exchange for raising the salary cap more than $1 million.
You can take that to the Silicon Valley Bank.
General managers have been operating under extreme duress for the past four years during which the cap has increased just $3 million from $79.5M in 2018-19 to $82.5M this season because of the revenue-generating interruption created by the pandemic.
It will increase to $83.5M next season unless, as stated by Gary Bettman at the GM meeting last week, the NHLPA gives something back. That would be the escrow rate the union gained during the 2020 collective bargaining agreement extension talks. “Inextricably linked,” said the commissioner.
It is always a negotiation for the commissioner and never a collaboration. There is always a demand. As it now stands, the PA’s escrow debt to the league supposedly stands at around $100M. The commissioner, thus, is holding NHL general managers hostage for about $3M a team no owner would miss — and would be recouped the following season as per the memorandum of understanding documenting terms of the extension.
Understand. Teams will suffer more than the players under this intransigent stance as front offices grapple with yet another minimal increase that would represent a 5.03 percent growth in the cap over five seasons. It isn’t profligate spending that pushed about half the league into cap distress this season and made necessary the use of long-term injured reserve to remain compliant. It’s the flat cap.
I have always agitated for a higher cap even at the expense of higher escrow, because I believe the league and the majority of players benefit from having as much money in the system as possible. But not this time. Because this would not benefit the majority of players.
Figuring 23 players per team, there are 736 roster spots in the league. According to data supplied by the good folks at CapFriendly, who are always willing to lend a helping hand to the arithmetically challenged, there are 494 NHL players under contract for next season. That leaves 242 spots to be filled on the market.
Thus, more than twice as many players would forfeit additional escrow in order to generate greater opportunity for those on the market. Dollars and sense, it does not equate.
Once the escrow debt is paid off next season, the cap is scheduled to increase to approximately $88M in 2024-25 and to around $92M in 2025-26. There is no reason the league couldn’t agree to smooth out this increase starting next season without a quid pro quo.
Except, like the old tale of the scorpion and the frog, that’s the NHL’s nature.
Far different stakes, for sure. But when K’Andre Miller made that weak play with the puck in the corner of the Garden rink at 33rd and Eighth on Thursday, which resulted in a giveaway to Sidney Crosby that one pass later was in the net, I saw Steve Vickers intending to leave it for Nick Beverley, only to have Jude Drouin jump on the puck and send it to J.P. Parise at 00:11 of Game 3.
Nearly 48 years ago, now, April 11, 1975, but it still seems like yesterday.
And the boxed set of deals with the North Stars in which the Islanders acquired Parise for Ernie Hicke and Doug Rombaugh 48 hours ahead of obtaining Drouin for Craig Cameron in early January 1975 remain towards the top of the list of Bill Torrey’s deals as GM.
Keep in mind that the Wild, 11-0-3 in their past 14 games to move within one point of the division-leading Stars in the Central entering Saturday, are doing this operating under an effective $69.8M cap.
GM Billy Guerin’s team started the season an approximate $12.7 million shy because of the combined buyout charges attached to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. Minnesota will bear that burden for another five seasons.
Even with that disadvantage, the Wild had enough space to act as deadline middle-men to assume third-party cap hits in exchange for draft picks while the team charged into contention. They’re now 2-0-1 since the brilliant Kirill Kaprizov went down with a lower-body injury that should sideline the winger for another few weeks.
Guerin surely merits serious consideration for the GM of Year Award.