Can you beleive the NHL’s maximum salary cap is now $59.4 MILLION? WOW! Even scarier for most team is the floor is now at $43 Million so you better be make money to play in the NHL. In all my arguments about the state of the NHL, I think the minimum salary floor is going to be the real undoing.
Unlike the MLB, the NHL doesn’t have a lucrative TV deal to help pad each teams bottom line. The $43M for each team next year, most of that is coming from the fans.
This is a HUGE jump from the $39M maximum the NHL had as a salary cap after the lockout (2005-2006) season. And more importantly, the minimum of $27M…
Could you imagine if the Phoenix Coyotes ‘revenue loss’ was replaced with a Hamilton team that was a ‘revenue generator’? Then the salary cap would probably be $62M-$64M with a minimum floor between $44M – $46. Might not seem like a big deal but remember the Atlanta Thrashers had trouble making the minimum three years ago when it was only $34M…now at $40 that is an exta $6M and the fan base in Atlanta isn’t going to make up that amount.
This increase is going to make things crazy…more and more bloated contracts are floating around the NHL. (Tim Thomas, $5 million cap hit * 3 years; Edmonton Oilers defenseman Sheldon Souray, $5.4 million * 2years, and many more)
With five teams struggling to get under the cap and another six NFL teams strugling to make the floor…what is the state of the NHL?
