from Craig Custance of ESPN,

When the NHL released its mid-October CBA offer to the public, everyone got a glimpse as to how the league was prepared to help teams manage the salary cap this season when it drops dramatically.

In that offer, the upper limit of the salary cap was $59.9 million, but a transition rule allowed teams to exceed it for only one season, permitting spending up to $70.2 million. That clause would prevent teams from having to dump major salaries in the short period of time between the CBA finalization and the start of the season.

But some team execs were left to wonder whether that's a robust enough transition rule. As one said during a recent phone conversation -- that transition rule is fine for this season, but what about next year?

The salary cap would still be in the low-$60 million range next year, and the ability to exceed it would disappear.

continued (normally a paid sub. but open right now)

added 10:24am, I just noticed this article is a week old, still relevant but old, sorry.