Quote:
Originally Posted by Oil Stain
The cap escalator creates an artificial increase to the salary cap limits without actually backing it up with increase HRR.
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This is incorrect. The cap escalator is tied directly to HRR.
The escalator isn't the problem. In fact, the escalator is one of the few parts of the CBA that actually works the way it's supposed to.
If they eliminated the escalator (as they did this summer when setting this season's salary range), it would help mask some of the issues (for one season only), but it won't fix the fundamental flaw of the salary cap structure in the NHL. That flaw is that the whole system was set up on an incorrect assumption.
The assumption on which the whole system is set up is that team payrolls would be relatively evenly distributed between the floor and the cap, with the majority of teams operating close to the midpoint of the range, with very few teams being close to either end. In reality, every season, the majority of teams end up clustered near the top of the salary range. In fact, we usually see more teams over the cap at the end of the season (after LTIR and bonuses are taken into account) than we see teams under the midpoint of the range.
Look at last season's numbers:
https://www.capfriendly.com/archive
5 teams had final cap payrolls over $75 million. Only 2 teams had final cap payrolls below the midpoint of $65.2 million. The lowest payroll in the league was Arizona and they were $3.4 million above the floor. 19 teams had less than $3.4 million in cap space at the end of the season.
Until that structure is fixed, the system will remain broken and the players will be stuck paying large amounts into escrow.
If you remove the escalator, you mask the problem one time, and only one time. Right now, the cap and floor are calculated using the projected revenue for the upcoming season, which is calculated by taking the previous season's actual revenue and applying a 5% escalator. If you eliminate that escalator, you remove that 5% from the equation one time. The fundamental flaw in the system that is there with the 5% escalator will still be there without it.
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Sorry for going off-topic. E=NG forever.