Salary cap: here’s how the Canadiens are (very) disadvantaged by the new collective agreement

One of the aspects that will hurt a club like the Habs, which is no longer looking to trade established players but to acquire them, is that double salary retention will have to be done with a 75-day gap (of regular season) between each trade.

So, picking up a player at 25% of his salary – via two transactions – in one day will no longer be possible.

Second aspect? The signing bonuses that teams often offer will no longer be able to make up more than 60% of the total amount of a contract. Gone will be the player who receives $12 million on July 1 and $1.5 million during the season.

This will inevitably put Canadian teams at a disadvantage. And why? Because Canadian clubs were able to offer large bonuses to American players so that the bonuses would be taxed in the United States.

But now, a smaller amount will inevitably mean that the gap between a club in Florida or Texas, for example, will be greater than ever compared to a club in Canada.

Managers here will need to have more than one trick up their sleeve…

Another example of what could hurt a wealthy club like the Canadiens: it will be increasingly difficult to give more money at the beginning of the contract than at the end of it.

A wealthy club like the Habs could front-load a contract, as they say, to give themselves more flexibility at the end of the contract to trade a player if they wanted to.

Having less real money on the contract opened up the market for a player.

So, basically, the NHL wants to restore a sort of salary balance between the league’s 32 markets, but it may have put obstacles in the way of clubs wanting to move.

Already, big transactions are harder than ever to make, but Gary Bettman has just made it harder for a few teams, including the Canadiens.

Kent Hughes will have to do more than think outside the box to make a move.

overtime

– Logan Mailloux interviewed by Tony Marinaro tonight.

– Shawn Lemon can return to the CFL.

– 15 M$?

– Wow.

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