Mirtle: NHL's salary cap could receive significant…

Sunday night, the NHL's "offseason" kicked off in earnest as the Avs and Jets filed for arbitration to avoid pitching qualifying offers to Ryan O'Reilly and Michal Frolik, respectively.

Today, things will get more interesting as the cap-compliance buy-out market begins (The Score's Thomas Drance and Justin Bourne listed 5 locks in that department), and after the NHL Awards take place in Las Vegas on Tuesday, June 24th, the NHL's new "Wining and Dining" period will begin and allow teams to make their pitches to free agents between June 25th and July 1st.

Conveniently, the NHL's Board of Governors will meet in Philadelphia ahead of the draft on the 27th and 28th, so it's highly likely that players will come to Philadelphia to field sales pitches from interested teams.

On Sunday evening, the Globe and Mail's James Mirtle penned something of an off-season blueprint, discussing potential cap-compliance buy-outs, teams that exceeded the salary cap to give veteran players bonus contracts, and he also noted that the NHL and NHLPA have yet to determine the upper limit of the salary cap for the 2014-2015 season.

Mirtle believes that the estimated $69.5 million upper limit could receive a boost into previously-suggested $70+ million territory for a very specific reason:

Based purely on the NHL’s projected revenues of $3.7-billion this season, the salary cap will rise to roughly $69.5-million for next year – a noteworthy 8 per cent increase that is in line with what we’ve seen in the past.
What that doesn’t factor in, however, is the possibility that the NHL and players’ union negotiate to include the new Canadian television deal in the cap formula right away, a distinct possibility according to multiple sources last week.
“If a significant one-time increase or decrease to league-wide revenues is anticipated in the next league year,” the NHL’s collective bargaining agreement reads, “the parties will endeavor to estimate the expected increase or decrease and incorporate that estimate into” the cap calculation.
A decision on this front hasn’t been made yet, but it could have major implications for the cap. The Rogers deal is so substantial it could mean an increase of a few million dollars, which would result in the NHL’s biggest single-season jump ever.

Mirtle continues at length...

Mirtle: NHL's salary cap could receive significant boost from NHL's Canadian TV deal

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