from Lyle Richardson of Spector's Hockey,

Recent reports forecasting the possible stagnation of the NHL salary cap for 2015-16 serves as a potentially stark lesson of how it could handcuff teams with limited cap space.

Here’s a look at some painful truths we’ve learned over the years about the NHL salary cap.

It will eventually hurt free-spending big market teams. Sure, they can afford to keep pace with a rising cap ceiling every year, and as the always-invaluable CapGeek.com indicates, many of them willingly do so. Abetted by clever “capologists”, some teams manage to ice competitive rosters with limited cap space each year. They have a talent for bringing in the right players at the right price, provided the salary cap consistently rises at a healthy rate each season.

But if the cap fails to increases significantly, it can have serious consequences. The Philadelphia Flyers are learning that lesson the hard way this season, as they lack sufficient cap space to improve their struggling roster. It’s also why the Chicago Blackhawks were forced to shed salary during the summer of 2010 and why they’ll have to do it again in the summer of 2015.

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