from Fraser Blair of Offside: A Sports Law Blog,

One of the concepts that I wrote about in the first piece about the Tim Thomas trade was the salary cap’s Lower Level (the salary floor). Under the new CBA, the way teams will approach the Lower Level will be significantly different due to 2 changes in the operating structure of the payroll range system.

First, beginning in the 2014-2015 season the Upper and Lower Limits of the payroll range (the cap floor and the ceiling) will no longer be calculated using the current formula. The current formula adds or subtracts $8 million from the salary midpoint in order to determine the Lower and Upper Levels. The salary midpoint is determined by the following steps: (1) multiply hockey related revenue (HRR) by the player’s share; (2) subtract player benefits from (1); (3) divide the figure from (1) and (2) by the number of teams.

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