Gary Bettman penalizes 6 NHL teams

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Dawson McKenzie
April 23, 2024 (7:36 PM)

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It has just been revealed that Gary Bettman and the NHL are punishing 6 different NHL teams for their use of the salary cap this season.

All eyes have been on Mark Stone and the way that the Las Vegas Golden Knights have circumvented the Salary Cap this season by placing him on LTIR once again until game 1 of the playoffs. However, while you may not like what the Knights are doing, it is completely within the rules to do so. The following 6 teams, though, are not within the rules, and will pay a penalty against next seasons' cap for payments made to players this year in the form of bonuses.

Sources: Six #NHL teams will carry at least $1 mil in bonus overage penalties onto next season's salary cap - an all-time high.

Part of that was planned, pre-spending a portion of the projected $4.3m increase. Some wasn't.

Here is the full list of the teams from the Daily Faceoff who are reportedly going to have to pay upwards of millions of dollars against the Cap next season.

While, as Seravalli says, this has been accounted for by many of the teams, it still is a huge issue when you have hindsight in your favour. For example, a big chunk of the Edmonton Oilers penalty is for payment to Connor Brown, who got a massive bonus for appearing in a certain number of NHL games this season. Despite the bonus, Brown has just 4 goals and 8 assists on the season.

The NHL's salary cap clearly is in dire need of a re-work, with teams doing everything in their power to skirt the rules. Hopefully, the discussion on it will spark some changes this offseason.

As seen on Hockey Feed - Report: NHL hits 6 teams with salary cap penalties