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I've been thinking about this for a while now. There's a salary cap in the NHL that is hard and impossible to really get around. You can waive players to the minors, you can attempt to trade them, you can buy them out, but eventually your home grown talent will emerge as real NHL players - and their pay will go up accordingly.
The NFL has a franchise tag in place, why not the NHL as well?
The franchise tag can be put on any player that the team has drafted originally and farmed through their system. For example: If the Ottawa Senators were to use this tag, they'd make Jason Spezza and his 7 million dollars per year their franchise player. His 7 million dollars would then not apply to the salary cap any longer, allowing for teams to have more wiggle room in order to bolster their lineups.
Potentially more trades could happen, more jobs would be created. Look at it as a reward. Teams who have drafted, farmed and are now dealing with a franchise player don't have to claim that player's salary against the cap.
Now there's potential downsides. For example: would Phoenix ever need to apply for a franchise tag? They have an internal cap of 45 million (or less), ditto Atlanta etc. This is built for the financially strong teams who would use Spezza's 7 million dollars and either re-negotiate with their other players, make a trade, sign a UFA - or just keep their cap nice and low with the expectation of something happening down the road.
Another sticky part of this would be determining the cap floor - especially is a team like LA were to tag Kopitar next year. Would they have to hit the cap floor of 40 million or whatever it'll be, or will they be exempt?
Still, as the months go by, there are problems arising with this salary cap. Whether people like to blame GMs, or players, or player's agents, or the economic downfall - no one can deny that the salary for a superstar is high - too high to effectively build the rest of the team - and equally hard when there's no second contract anymore. Consider that the average salary for each team's number one player is: 6.65 million dollars - or approximately 1/8 of the entire cap.*
This would be a way to alleviate some of the pressures and allow for more creative moves that would keep fans interest even in the dullest of months.
*Highest paid player of each team, divided by 30.
The NFL has a franchise tag in place, why not the NHL as well?
The franchise tag can be put on any player that the team has drafted originally and farmed through their system. For example: If the Ottawa Senators were to use this tag, they'd make Jason Spezza and his 7 million dollars per year their franchise player. His 7 million dollars would then not apply to the salary cap any longer, allowing for teams to have more wiggle room in order to bolster their lineups.
Potentially more trades could happen, more jobs would be created. Look at it as a reward. Teams who have drafted, farmed and are now dealing with a franchise player don't have to claim that player's salary against the cap.
Now there's potential downsides. For example: would Phoenix ever need to apply for a franchise tag? They have an internal cap of 45 million (or less), ditto Atlanta etc. This is built for the financially strong teams who would use Spezza's 7 million dollars and either re-negotiate with their other players, make a trade, sign a UFA - or just keep their cap nice and low with the expectation of something happening down the road.
Another sticky part of this would be determining the cap floor - especially is a team like LA were to tag Kopitar next year. Would they have to hit the cap floor of 40 million or whatever it'll be, or will they be exempt?
Still, as the months go by, there are problems arising with this salary cap. Whether people like to blame GMs, or players, or player's agents, or the economic downfall - no one can deny that the salary for a superstar is high - too high to effectively build the rest of the team - and equally hard when there's no second contract anymore. Consider that the average salary for each team's number one player is: 6.65 million dollars - or approximately 1/8 of the entire cap.*
This would be a way to alleviate some of the pressures and allow for more creative moves that would keep fans interest even in the dullest of months.
*Highest paid player of each team, divided by 30.
