Eat Shit, Cheaters: The NHL Isn't Wasting Any Time, Will Have The New Salary Cap System In Effect For The 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs
Carmen Mandato. Getty Images.In sports, they always say it's not the best collection of players who win championships but rather the best teams. Even that's a load of crap when we're talking about the National Hockey League. Because over the last decade or so, it hasn't been just the best teams that win the Stanley Cup. It's the organizations who are able to finagle the salary cap and move enough money around during the regular season to make sure they could take advantage of a loophole in the CBA where the salary cap was non-existent come playoff time. The teams who are able to stash key players on LTIR during the regular season, make a few additions to the roster at the trade deadline, and then head into the playoffs at least $10 million over the cap. That's been the recipe for success year after year. The Chicago Blackhawks have done it. The Tampa Bay Lightning have done it. The Vegas Golden Knights have done it. The Florida Panthers have done it.
Hopefully all those dirty, rotten, good-for-nothing cheaters had their fun while they could. Because it now appears that loophole has been closed for good.
There were a few big changes introduced into the new CBA. The season is going to go from 82 to 84 games, there is going to be a new limit on contract terms, a new limit on contract signing bonuses, and then of course there is the new system to enforce the salary cap in the playoffs. The NHL didn't want to rush into all those changes at once, but they also didn't want another team taking advantage of the salary cap loophole in the playoffs. So that'll be one of the changes that gets implemented immediately.
Obviously the loophole wasn't the easiest cheat code to take advantage of. You still need to have a strong enough team that could deal with losing one of your best players to LTIR during the regular season and still keep yourself in a playoff position. But once you get into the Stanley Cup Playoffs, anything can happen. It's not like any teams get a bye in the first round. It's not even like that first round series is only something like 3 or 5 games, which would benefit a team that isn't trying to work a guy back into the lineup. The playoffs start and it's just a brand new season where everybody gets a chance to start on an even foot.
Which is great. It's the way that it should be. It's what makes the Stanley Cup Playoffs so great. Teams just shouldn't be allowed to go into the playoffs with a roster that is $20 million over the cap without getting penalized. Seems like that should be pretty universally agreed upon. But what would I know. The Flyers haven't won a Cup since 1975, so I would happily take a Flyers team being $50 million over the cap winning for the first time in my life.