"Teams made plans and then, in September, the league changes the rules. It's bush league. All of a sudden, if you're one of these teams that's been kind of planning a certain way, they just changed the rules on you."
"Everybody would've preferred the new rules to kick in on July 1 if they were going to be applied to this season. Instead, they were announced right before the start of the regular season and it blindsided a lot of people."
"To combat that trend, the new CBA created a de facto playoff salary cap, where teams must submit a 20-player gameday lineup whose averaged club salary is under the upper limit of the regular-season salary cap for that team."
The NHL moved up several new salary cap rules from the 2024 CBA to the 2025-26 season, briefing general managers only in September rather than when the agreement was finalized in July. Teams that had already made financial plans were caught off-guard by the sudden changes. The most significant modification creates a de facto playoff salary cap requiring teams to submit 20-player gameday lineups with averaged club salary under the regular-season cap limit. This targets the common practice of teams placing high-salaried players on long-term injured reserve to create cap space for playoff acquisitions, then activating those players when playoffs begin. Team executives and player agents criticized the timing and lack of consultation, calling the implementation unprofessional.
Read at ESPN.com
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