Pros, Cons, and Other Options for a Luxury Tax System in the NHL

Now why the league should NOT use a Luxury Tax.

There are teams like the Pittsburgh Penguins and Colorado Avalanche who navigated the cap perfectly to ice a competitive roster under $82.5 million. Players take massive pay cuts in order to help the team win, making that Stanley Cup that much more sweeter.

Nathan MacKinnon is well-documented for his current salary (6.3 mil) making him the most underpaid NHL player right now. Guys like Cale Makar could easily be making a ton of money, but signed for a cut of 9 million and Samuel Girard signed for 5 million. Sidney Crosby has been massively underpaid with a 8.7 million dollar salary for 12 years as well, to name a couple examples.

Again, the luxury tax could bode very well for teams like Vegas and Toronto, BUT it could lose the allure of the Stanley Cup. Guys sacrifice for the championship in this league, whether it be playing through injury or taking pay cuts to grind out four, seven-game series to win the grandest trophy in all of sports. Not many leagues can say that their championship is the hardest to build and play for. With a luxury tax, teams would have the potential to cruise right through the bracket for an easy Cup.

No one wants to watch that, except the fans of that team. Not to mention that teams with money-hungry owners won’t care about winning because they get a guaranteed check at the end of the season. Passionate, competitive owners want to win more than anything and spending 10 million dollars won’t do much for them.

Now, there is an obvious solution to this. And something everyone involved has asked for a LONG time now.