Quote:
Originally Posted by taxbuster
Why? Why should a team be able to play in the playoffs in a manner it couldn't do all season? There is simply no rationale for that whatsoever.
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It's been the case since the beginning of the salary cap. The cap isn't adding up all the cap hits and forcing you to be under in a snap shot in time, it's based on daily cap hits and being under at the end of the season.
Without any shenanigans, a floor team on pace for 60M would arrive at the trade deadline and be able to add 105M in cap hits for a total of 165M and be cap compliant this year:
60M*0.8+165M*0.2=81M
Of course this never happens as floor teams aren't looking to load up but most playoff teams (those not having LTIR) accrue cap space as the season goes on to be able to load up at the deadline.
Even the Flames, on pace to be just under the salary cap, have a total salary cap of players (and dead hits) a couple million above the ceiling with 83M. The Panthers have a total salary cap of players at 87.5M.