NHL not yet willing to entertain negotiations on salary cap increase
PALM BEACH, Fla. — If you’re rooting for the NHL’s salary cap to increase substantially next summer, then you better break out your pom-poms for the Toronto Maple Leafs, New York Rangers, Boston Bruins Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights to go on deep playoff runs this spring.
Because without help from either big market, big spending fanbases or a significant change in the price of the Canadian dollar, the NHL’s salary cap may only increase $1 million next season.
That’s the report commissioner Gary Bettman relayed to the league’s Board of Governors here on Day 2 of their annual December meeting.
Bettman said in his media availability that the league is currently projecting approximately $70 million to be remaining on the escrow debt to be repaid by players to owners after this season.
According to Bettman, that would require the NHL’s overall business to exceed expectations by $140 to $150 million over the final six-plus months of the season in order for that debt to be retired.
If it is not retired in full, then the Memorandum of Understanding inked between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Association in 2020 as a result of business interruption due to the pandemic calls for a scant $1 million increase and a fourth straight season with an essentially frozen salary cap.
“And if it’s to be changed, that’s something that would obviously have to be discussed with the Players’ Association,” Bettman said. “We’ll just have to watch it.”
Just don’t ask Bettman about the possibility of re-negotiating the terms of the MOU with the NHLPA, which should have a new Executive Director by season’s end, should the debt remain in the range of a relatively minuscule $70 million.
Bettman revealed publicly on Tuesday for the first time that the debt ballooned to “about” $1.5 billion based on the 2020-21 season with players earning far more than their 50 percent share of revenue. If the debt remaining is only $70 million, that means that more than 95 percent of the loan will have been repaid.
The truth is, there is a significant faction of Governors representing teams in the room this week who are antsy for a significant increase in the salary cap this summer so their teams can be remade or improved. But that appeared to be news to Bettman.
“That’s not something that we’re discussing right now,” Bettman said. “Why are you even suggesting that it’s a possibility? Are you negotiating? Has the union suggested that? I mean, it is what it is …
“I’m not having this discussion with this group [media]. You’re like having a negotiation with me on something we’re not even negotiating. You know, the sense I get from the questions I’m getting asked, is somehow there’s an expectation that the cap should be going up more. That’s not what the agreement provides for based on the current circumstances.”
Bettman is correct, by the letter of the agreement, the cap is not to increase until the debt is retired in full. It is black and white. So the NHL does not have to engage in any discussion to amend that, even if it may be in the best interests of both parties involved to begin to smooth out substantial salary cap increases starting in 2023 rather than one much larger jump in 2024.
Bettman said if the debt is retired in full this summer, on the wave of a Stanley Cup parade through the self-proclaimed center of the hockey universe in downtown Toronto, then the cap would rise to an approximate $86.5 million or so.
What a scene that would be, other teams around the league rooting for the revenue windfall. Then again, that we’re even talking about the debt being retired this quickly – two seasons ahead of original projections – is already quite something.
“What’s clear is we’ve had a robust comeback post-Covid and revenues are growing quite nicely,” Bettman said. “Collectively we have done quite well, meaning us and the players, by having things come back as strong as they have where it’s crystal clear that certainly this is going to be paid off in the not-so-distant future.”
Slap shots
Bettman said that “more than a dozen” interested parties have signed an NDA to gain access to the Ottawa Senators’ books to analyze a potential sale, the process of which is expected to pick up in earnest after the holidays … Bettman and deputy commissioner Bill Daly met with prospective Senators minority partner and Hollywood actor Ryan Reynolds and were “very much impressed” but Daly clarified Reynolds’ involvement is not a condition of the sale … Bettman said the NHL still “has work to do” on the sexual assault investigation involving members of the 2018 Team Canada World Junior Championship team, but is “certainly in the home stretch.” Bettman was noncommittal about publishing the findings of their investigation. Bettman also said he is not privy to the facts: “I’m not involved in seeing the substance of the report until the report is done.”