Darren Dreger suggests implementing a luxury tax like in major league baseball

Like every week on the morning show on TSN 690, Darren Dreger was the guest of the hosts. The famous insider talked about Shea Weber and Jeff Petry, in particular. He also talked about the Toronto Maple Leafs and his expectations in the first round.

But what I remember is that according to him, the NHL should implement a luxury tax like in the MLB. Dreger didn’t hear that anywhere. It is strictly according to his opinion.

For those unfamiliar with the monetary situation in major league baseball, there is no salary cap. The 30 teams of the Manfred circuit can spend freely. However, those who exceed the luxury tax (in 2022, the amount is estimated at 230 million dollars), they will have to pay an additional tax.

For rich teams like the Dodgers or the Yankees, this tax is a real joke. It is for this reason that each year, these teams manage to build a competitive team on the field. Obviously, a luxury tax and the absence of a salary cap can disadvantage less wealthy teams like the Guardians, the A’s or the Rays for example. In hockey, it would be the Coyotes, Senators, etc.

In the NHL – if it decided to implement the luxury tax – teams like the Leafs and Rangers would be greatly advantaged, because nothing would prevent them from spending $150 million per season. The $20 million tax (example) they will have to pay would not scare anyone, according to Darren Dreger. He suggested another interesting idea: a player cannot occupy more than 20% of the total salary mass of the team.

Forget the contracts of 15 million dollars per season to an elite player, therefore.

Note that the contracts of Connor McDavid ($12.5 million), Auston Matthews ($11.64 million) and Carey Price ($10.5 million), to name a few, do not occupy 20% of the payroll of their respective team. In fact, no NHL player has such a high contract.

Honestly, I’d much rather have the salary cap raised by a million or two million a year than to remove the cap completely. I think there is better parity in the league when there are (real) monetary limits. Before the implementation of a luxury tax, I would implement a salary floor, myself, to avoid situations “à la Coyotes de Arizona”.

A lot of

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– Interesting.

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– Let’s see.