Daily Faceoff Live: NHL teams should get 20% cap discount for homegrown talent

Frank Seravalli: “If there was a single rule that you could change or re-write, what would it be?”

Colby Cohen: “This is one that I’ve been saying, it’s all about the salary cap and it’s all about teams that draft and develop players well. I would give teams a 20 percent discount on the cap when they re-sign homegrown players to contracts over five years.

So if you’re the Toronto Maple Leafs and you’ve got all of these young superstars who are coming up for contracts at the same time and you sign them to a 10-year, $10 million per year deal, that would then only count as $8 million per year against their cap.

Therefore, we’re rewarding teams for keeping their drafted players around, which is really rewarding the fans. We’ve seen different players who haven’t been able to stay because other players are up for contracts. To me, that’s something that would benefit the game and the fans, and the league is healthy, so I think the owners would go for it and could afford it.”

Seravalli: “Are you saying one player or any player?”

Cohen: “Any player. Any homegrown player. If you draft them and you develop them and they become a star, you’re given a discount against the cap, I think the number should be 20 percent, but I would be able to negotiate that between the Players’ Association and the league.

Again, it’s all about the fans. You have the fans that buy the jersey and then their favorite player has to go somewhere else because we have a triple hard salary cap system.”

You can watch the full episode here…