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Hi everyone, I have been an avid viewer of these boards for over 15 years. I have never posted or even commented before but thought I would take a stab at sharing an idea that I have been thinking on for quite some time. I have always loved hockey, but as I have aged, I have gained more and more interest in the business side of the sport. Please excuse the length of this post but that is what you get after 15 years of silence. Who thinks the salary cap’s main purpose is to create a competitive league where all teams have an equal playing field? I do not. Who loves all the salary cap acrobatics teams must perform to fit within the salary cap confines throughout the season? I do not. Who thinks anyone other than many NHL owners and Gary Bettman, love the salary cap? I do not. The owners gave up a whole season for the salary cap and it seems it is here to stay. The main purpose of the cap is to ensure players will not earn more than 50% of all hockey related revenue. The CBA accomplishes this root goal very well. There are, however, a ton of rules within the CBA that supposedly address the desires to create balance and parity, such as: cap ceiling, cap floor, tagging rules, etc., but the CBA, as written, doesn’t seem to accomplish this as well. The consistently competitive teams, the teams with deeper pockets and teams with aggressive/crazy owners will almost always perform cap acrobatics to manipulate the system in their favor. These teams, while technically under the cap ceiling, have payrolls far greater than the cap ceiling. This is how Tampa wins the cup with 18 million in salary over the cap. These types of teams are not a true reflection of their cap hit and there are several examples each year. On the flip side, the budget/small market teams, the cheap owner teams, the forever inept teams will almost always perform cap acrobatics to manipulate the system in their favor. These teams, while technically over the cap floor, have payroll to players that is far lowerr. This is how a team like Arizona takes on players that are on LTIR but insured, or players like a Loui Player Name with a 6 million cap hit but actual salary much lower. These types of teams are not a true reflection of their cap hit and there are several examples each year. There is also, as I understand it, an underutilized advantage within the current salary cap structure, where teams can bank cap space. If, for example, a team had $5MM in space throughout the season they could take on a significantly higher amount in salaried players nearer to the deadline. This rarely happens as most teams ride the upper limit all year and most GM’s seem to be way too conservative to really go for it some years but theoretically it could happen. I bring these things up to highlight that league is quite content to let teams spend amounts outside of the cap ceiling and floor ranges. With what Tampa Bay and Las Vegas have done in recent years and what Arizona seems to have always done, there seems to be no limit to what the league would find acceptable, its all just semantics. What are they trying to accomplish if they let all this slide? It highlights that the NHL is just shuffling the money around within the cap system, so the rich teams pay more, and the poorer team do not… And I am fine with it. Who wants an NHL where if a team wanted to make a trade to improve their team, now or down the road, the GM wasn’t as severely handcuffed by salary cap constraints? I do. Who wants an NHL where the trade deadline was possibly way more exciting? I do. Who want an NHL where we hear about the salary cap way less often throughout the season? I do. We currently live in an NHL where there is no salary cap in the playoffs. Why then, can’t we just do this earlier? Why not eliminate the salary cap before the season even starts? Wait, didn’t I just say the salary cap was here to stay? Yes, I did, and it still would be. It is all just semantics at this point. The league will still get their split. I am just moving the goal posts of acceptability but not quite tearing them down. The rest of the post is just ideas around how to accomplish this. Whatever world works to get to where the NHL doesn’t have a cap for the season and playoffs is my goal. Remember owners get 50% and players get 50%, none of these changes are intended to result in more cost to the league overall or a reduction to any player salaries. If any scenario caused more money to be paid or calculated, it would be offset by the already established escrow system and the salary cap ceiling calculations each year. Ultimately, GM’s, players & agents will learn how best to compete within any system. If any of the rules look like they can be abused and a team takes advantage of it in a way that I feel goes against the spirit of my initial intent, then I would anticipate the NHL to close the loophole while arbitrarily punishing some of those teams’ years after the fact. 1. When the NHL sets the salary cap each year (floor and ceiling), they will also provide a projection salary cap ceiling for the subsequent season. This projection will be used as the baseline for the tagging rule I mention below. We will call it the tagging cap. 2. The day before the first day of the NHL season, teams must submit their 23-man opening day roster that falls within the salary cap floor and ceiling range. We will call this the team locked in cap. This 23-man roster calculation will follow whatever calculations go into doing this today. 3. The difference between the team locked in cap and the salary ceiling will be called the team salary bank 4. The team salary bank can be used to sign players, after the season starts, to a contract that is greater than the league minimum. It can also be used to apply any bonuses earned during the season. 5. Players signing after the season begins, cannot have bonuses included in their contract, within the first season, unless there is enough money in the team salary bank to cover the totality of the possible bonuses. 6. Burying a salary currently allows for league minimum salary + $375,000.00 in cap relief. I propose reducing this to league minimum salary cap relief moving forward. In my new world burying a contract has less concern anyway. The league minimum contracts can be signed throughout the season without concern for the cap as they effectively are in the current world. 7. Keep the current rule that no team can be below the cap floor during the season. 8. Players signed after the season starts cannot be traded within the same season. 9. All players that are on LTIR cannot be traded. 10. Teams with players on LTIR, that are expected to miss the entire season, may choose to have that salary count within their team locked in cap or not. This helps teams that might have tighter budgets and cannot spend as much as others, but it loses the stigma of manipulating the system by trading for injured players to just reach the floor. A player like Michael Ferland is a good example here. His contract still has impact to the overall salary cap calculations for the league but to the Canucks they likely would not include him in their team locked in cap where a team like Arizona would. 11. If a player starts the season on LTIR but is not expected to miss the entire season, their cap hit will be prorated based on the number of games they are expected to play. They cannot be taken off LTIR until those games are met. Doctors already make recommendations on player returns and there is LTIR being a minimum of 10 games or 28 days so there is precedent here. If a team is worried that a player may return earlier, they can just set the LTIR at a lower amount and effectively increase their team locked in cap number before the season starts. All those rules, and I am sure some more I haven’t considered, to get to the main change 12. Teams may trade for players throughout the season and until the trade deadline without consideration to the cap limit during the year with one caveat. They still need to abide by a tagging rule, which restrict the team from having commitments to players that causes them to exceed the tagging cap. Similar to how they do it today. So that is it, I am wondering what people think about the basis of this idea? Am I crazy, should I leave for another 15 years or should I be the new commissioner of the NHL?

Canucks fan for many years and feel for the Canucks players. All have to start over laugh go have fun. Really need to let go of what has happened as all of you are great players and great people on and off the ice. Keep up the great work. Keep working hard. Wish all the Canucks and all people through the world a very merry Christmas

There are some silly rules that need to be changed! What do y'all think and which ones you'd like to address! The Trapezoid is just ridiculous! Plus get the referees to apply the rules in a consistent manner and the abuses players are getting away with in the playoffs but the ticky tack ones could be ignored! Say yall!

If I have a peave, and I probably have several it is the quick whistle I think Refs should be fined for stopping a play that costs a team a scoring chance. But last night Nate Schmidt takes a puck high and the play is stopped, he was not hurt at all If I was Edmonton i'd have been POed. So, here is my proposed rule change If a player lakes a puck high, like Schmidt did last night the player can choose to have the play stopped by doing nothing. If the player is really in distress, the ref can and should stop the play. however, if it is just an awkward looking play, like last night, the player should tell the ref he is alright by shouting "no" If the player allows the play to stop, the player receives a 10 minute time out If the player shouts "no" the play continues This rule is in effect the same as a football player taking a knee and being required to miss 3 plays. If the player is truely injured, missing 10 minutes is nothing If they are not injured the play should continue Its the players choice. edit, hey I got a wonkie Loui face from Mastermind and Confused... just goes to show that I can confuse the Best and the Worst of em edit #2 score card 1 Puck or stick near head/throat but no contact with either- no injury 2 puck or stick contact head or throat- no injury 3 contact with head/throat- player need assistance or has difficulty regaining footing 4 contact possible loss of conciousness or blood 5 needs ablulance 1- Schmidt -Jan 13

December 1: Canucks trade tiers - Pettersson and Hughes most valuable...but untouchable

November 1: Ask Me Anything (Ryan Kesler in the Ring of Honour, dark horse prospects)

October 1: will Jim Benning be able to acquire more picks for next week’s draft?

September 1: Canucks vs. Golden Knights Game 5 preview: Thatcher Demko could start

August 1: My predictions for the NHL Qualifying Round and Round-Robin

July 1: Edmonton and Toronto the new front-runners as NHL Hub Cities

June 1: can Quinn Hughes beat out Cale Makar for the Calder Trophy?

May 1, 2020: chatting with Thomas Drance of The Athletic

Just a thought. With the talk of the NHL getting restarted and using hub cities and empty arenas, Wouldn’t it be possible to dub in crowd noises and cheers for your favourite team? I am no tech guy but surely it is possible to have fans call in or login to a site record yourself cheering and maybe singing some of the celebration songs and merge them together with thousands of other fans to form a virtual home team crowd. It could work as a fundraiser for those arena employees displaced because of COVID-19 or go towards the teams charity. Fans could submit their cheer or their noise for a fee. The crowd noise could be piped into the arenas through the sound systems and be in sync with who the home team is designated for that game. It would be a win win the players and the fans, giving them a virtual crowd to listen to instead of a lack lustre silence of an empty rink, akin to a rec hockey game. Pipe dream or possible?

April 1: appreciating John Shorthouse, John Garrett, and Dan Murphy

March 1: brutal collapse wastes 3 pt nights for Elias Pettersson & JT Miller

February 1: Quinn Hughes takes over NHL Rookie scoring lead with 2 goals in Canucks win

January 1: vote Quinn Hughes into the All Star Game, ringing in 2020 in the hospital

December 1: McDavid and Draisaitl dominant again, Boeser and Leivo score goals

https://neutralzonetrap.net/2019/09/17/the-all-too-early-2022-team-canada-olympic-team-prediction/

November 1: Sven Baertschi recalled from Utica - is he here to stay?

October 1: Captain will be named next week at home opener

September 1: finally September is here...that means training camp is 2 weeks away

August 1: why the Micheal Ferland signing is the best thing for Jake Virtanen

July 1: Canucks sign free agents Tyler Myers, Jordie Benn, and Oscar Fantenberg

June 2: Summer Summit with the Sedins on same evening as Botchford Tribute Event