Last week, the NHL made a very surprising announcement, saying that the league and the NHLPA agreed to install some elements of the new Collective Bargaining Agreement this season, roughly a full calendar year before the current CBA expires.

Amongst the changes that will be implemented for this upcoming season are an all new playoff salary cap system that will essentially stop teams from using the Long-Term Injured Reserve loophole, a new way of calculating the amount of cap relief that a team gets from putting a player on LTIR, and a restriction on retained salary transactions, effectively putting a stop to the double retention move that’s become very common at the trade deadline.

I spoke with Hart Levine from PuckPedia about these changes. He called the announcement shocking.

“I fell out of my chair. I did not think anything would come into place this year. I was wondering if some stuff would go into place on July 1, like the contract limits, but I never thought anything would go into place this year.”

It wasn’t just fans who were surprised by these changes, either, says Levine.

“You know who else was surprised? GMs. They had no clue that this was coming. It was pretty shocking.”

Why would the league’s general managers be shocked that this is happening? Well, these changes are going to have a massive impact on how teams can make in-season moves.

If you want a full breakdown of every rule, I highly suggest going over to PuckPedia to read Hart’s full breakdown.

Here is a quick version of things:

Teams placing a player on LTIR can still increase their salary cap pool by the injured player’s cap hit. However, for players expected to return during the same season or playoffs, LTIR relief is now limited to the previous season’s average league salary (will be just under $4m).
For each playoff game, the total cap hit of the dressed players must be under the cap ceiling for that season. Player cap hits will not be prorated.
A team cannot retain on a contract/player that has already been retained within 75 regular-season days of the first retention.

So, let me put this into a real-world hypothetical.

Let’s say that the Oilers start the season with around $1 million in cap space and accrue space throughout the season, so during the deadline period, they will have roughly $4-4.5 million in cap space. They can go out and acquire a player at the deadline who has a cap hit of $4m and still be cap compliant.

Once the playoffs start, though, that player’s cap hit becomes $4 million, meaning the Oilers might not be able to afford having that player in the lineup anymore.

For teams that consider themselves locks to make the playoffs or true Cup contenders, there is now less incentive to accrue cap space during the season, because come playoff time, the calculation changes, and the player goes back to their full cap hit.

Sure, the roster size reduces, which could save a team around $3 million and allow them to squeeze in a slightly more expensive player. But the benefit is still not as great.

It will now also be harder for contenders to acquire players since the league has essentially ended double retention.

If a contending team has $2 million in accrued cap space at the deadline, it used to mean that they could still go and acquire a player with a cap hit of $8 million if they had two teams each retain on the contract.

It’s similar to what the Oilers did with Trent Frederic this past season, when they had the Bruins retain 50% and the Devils retain 25% of his contract.

That loophole is now closed.

While the trade deadline has lost some steam over the last few years, these CBA changes will dampen things even more. This is something that Levine agreed with as well.

“They think people aren’t interested in trades for some reason. I don’t get it,” said Levine.
“I tried to do some digging on why they made some of these rules. The NHL did not like the feeling that teams were kind of getting away with something or having some advantage over other teams and not following the spirit of the salary cap rules.”

It is now going to be astronomically more difficult for teams to acquire impact players at the trade deadline, and I’m honestly not sure why the NHL decided to go this route.

Contending teams will have a harder time getting better, teams near the bottom of the standings will have a harder time selling off pieces and building for the future, and fans are going to be robbed of what should be a very exciting time of the year.

Big trades mean more eyeballs on the league, and that is good for the sport.

If you want to watch my full interview with Levine, you can find it here:

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