from Larry Brooks of the New York Post,

Regarding Return to Play:

1. There will be two subsections of groups that will benefit if the NHLPA ratifies the renegotiated and extended collective bargaining agreement, which will be presented to the union for ratification as part of a comprehensive return-to-play package that will include hub-city locations and health/safety coronavirus-related protocols for training camp and the Stanley Cup tournament.

And they are: 1) Owners who don’t particularly care if their respective teams win; and, 2) Players on long-term contracts who don’t particularly care if their respective teams win.

2. Because a flat cap at the current $81.5 million for the next two or three years (there is talk of increasing the cap by $1 million in Year 3) will strangle contenders that historically spend to the upper ceiling, and will have to contend with arbitration and pending unrestricted free agents without the luxury of steady, even if modest, increased spending room. To wit: the cap increased from $73 million in 2016-17 to $81.5 million over the next three seasons, a jump of 11.64 percent.

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