But with the COVID pandemic and the lack of movement for the salary cap to rise, teams have had to go to interesting lengths trying to improve their rosters to take a run of the cup.
The Vegas Golden Knights were at the top of the list according to capfriendly.com 's archive for this season. The Golden Knights had a final cap hit of $96.4 million when the cap was only 82 million.
To be fair, this practice is new to the NHL as a few Stanley Cup winners have done some odd and creative math to be able to key players on the injury reserve and then allow them to enter the Stanley Cup playoffs once the season is over. There is talk that this practice will come to an end next year and that loophole will close.
Vegas also used its ability to acquire contracts for injured players who can no longer play. Their cap will give them cap relief and acquire more players which goes over and above the limit.
With all these teams over their means, this will be a fascinating summer to see how they manage their books and try to fit to be cap compliant come October.
POLL | ||
JUIN 14 | 1941 ANSWERS Vegas broke cap rules and won the Stanley Cup Do you think the Golden Knights are cheaters? | ||
Yes | 1375 | 70.8 % |
No | 566 | 29.2 % |
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