The NHL Board of Governors meetings in Southern California earlier this week did not yield any significant progress on expansion, but it did put an end to the much criticized draft pick compensation for coaches and executives and gave clubs an idea what the salary cap will be for 2016-17.
Bids from Las Vegas and Quebec City were discussed at length but no timetable was revealed for a decision on when or if the two cities would be granted entry.
It does not appear that expansion is a front burner issue, which is peculiar since NHL owners stand to make over $1 Billion in expansion fees, but the reason for the league slow-playing expansion may be the uncertain status of existing clubs in Florida, Arizona and Carolina, as well as another potential bid from Seattle.
The Panthers received $86 Million in financial assistance from Broward County this week and that will keep them in South Florida for the foreseeable future.
Coyotes ownership is hoping to resolve their chronic arena issues in Glendale by teaming up with the NBA Suns or Arizona State University on a new building in downtown Phoenix.
Hurricanes owner Peter Karmanos has been looking to add a minority owner, but has not been able to find anyone to this point.
Seattle has yet to break ground on an arena, but there remains interest in the large Pacific Northwest market.
What may be at work is NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman trying to resolve all the existing franchise problems before going forward with expansion plans. In a perfect world, the plan may be to add Las Vegas and Seattle to the Western Conference and have Quebec City at the ready for a franchise in trouble like the Hurricanes, as Winnipeg was for the Atlanta Thrashers.
The ruling on compensation for coaches and team executives was to eliminate it completely effective January 1 after one season. Teams who have already surrendered draft picks will not get them back.
That decision is particularly harsh on the Edmonton Oilers (who gave up a pair of third rounders for GM Peter Chiarelli and head coach Todd McLellan), the Toronto Maple Leafs (who surrendered the same for Lou Lamoriello and Mike Babcock) and the Columbus Blue Jackets (who gave up a second round pick to hire ex-Canucks coach John Tortorella).
“On balance, it just wasn’t worth the debate, the confusion, the uncertainty that flowed from it,” Bettman said. “Frankly, I thought the old policy worked very well. I think you remember from the GM Meeting, one of the caveats that I put into place when I agreed to implement the revised policy was that if there are any problems with this we will scrap it and go back to what we had.”
The league also provided clubs an estimate of the salary cap for 2016-17 and indicated that it could increase as much as $3 million from the current $71.4 Million cap limit to $74.5 million.
Factors such as the strength of the Canadian dollar and whether the NHLPA will envoke the 5% elevator clause to raise the cap could effect the projection, but it does give NHL GM’s some idea of what they have to work with financially after this season, which could effect the trade market before the upcoming February 29th NHL Trade Deadline.
Two months into the regular season, goalie Kevin Poulin going from Tampa Bay to Calgary for future considerations is the only trade that has been completed.
Trade discussions between clubs have been constant, but there has been no movement because most teams have little room under the salary cap and deals have to be balanced monetarily.
That is expected to change in early February, when existing teams have already paid the bulk of player’s salaries. As with last season, the most popular names will be those with be expiring contracts like Carolina center Eric Staal, Boston winger Loui Eriksson, Calgary forward Jiri Hudler, Islanders winger Kyle Okposo and Toronto goalie James Reimer.
The prospect of an extra $3 million in additional cap space next season might make clubs who feel they are one or two players away from being Cup contenders willing to roll the dice and take on a player with term left on his contract.
Each week in “Rink Rumblings”, Michael Augello of Hockeybuzz.com, who can be found on twitter @MikeInBuffalo, takes an in-depth look at the players, games and news from around the National Hockey League.