NHLPA head Marty Walsh on state income tax advantage: ‘Nothing we can do about it’
If you’re hoping that the NHL will make some changes with regards to state taxes, you better not hold your breath.
The NHL and NHLPA met on Friday ahead of the 2025 NHL Entry Draft, and while the big news was the announcement of a four-year extension to the collective bargaining agreement, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman and NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh weren’t getting away without having to talk about state taxes.
According to both parties, there doesn’t appear to be any plan on finding a solution to the problem, nor do they believe it to even be a problem in the first place.
“Well, first and foremost, there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Walsh. “I mean, it’s come up so many different times in different states and in most states, most cities don’t have jurisdiction to raise taxes. Some states and cities do, New York does, and I believe Chicago does. It’s a state issue. It’s a state law, same in Canada. So there’s not much we can do about it.
“The fact that we have Florida winning the Stanley Cup two years in a row. Can you put that on the state tax? I don’t think that’s the reason why they won the Stanley Cup. I think the way they want to win the Stanley Cup is because they put the best group of players together. There are other teams out there that have great players as well.
“Free agency is coming up. I don’t think there’s any players out there saying, ‘well, I don’t want to sign with X team because the rate is 10%.’ So I don’t think it has that big of an impact. I think that’s more of a story that’s being spun by the press and people that want to spin it up. But I honestly don’t think the tax issue is dictating where players go for what team.”
There was no mention from either Bettman or Walsh about anything on the CBA having to do with the state income taxes.
“It’s almost insulting to the teams that have had success to attribute it to state taxes,” Bettman added. “My guess is if you ask players, there are myriad of decisions that go into where they want to play.”
The NHL has six teams that reside in states that don’t have personal income tax: the Dallas Stars, Florida Panthers, Nashville Predators, Seattle Kraken, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights. It’s been largely brought up by the fans and media that this has played a beneficial role in their team building, as they can utilize the lack of taxes to save money on the overall cap hit of a player’s contract.
Five of the last six Stanley Cup champions have been teams that reside in states with no personal income tax. Along with that, 13 of the 24 teams to make the Conference Finals in the same span have been one of those six teams.