It's not just about the headliners and saying "it's only X% of the cap" though. In the early years of the cap, the young guys and mid tier players weren't making a lot - teams did a pretty good job of holding down those contracts so that they could pay the stars and UFAs.
It has since switched. Second contracts are much larger (thanks, Edmonton), and mid tier guys are routinely making $4 or $5M now. So it isn't necessarily as easy to allocate the same percentages to the top guys as they were earning back then.
Plus, teams are getting deeper. There used to be 5 or 6 core players on a good team. Now it's 8 or 9. So you really have to be conscious of managing those high-end contracts, or you don't have enough room for the rest of the core that you'll need (cough*Edmonton*cough)
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