NHL general managers have 'healthy discussion' about playoff salary cap

Nikita Kucherov was happy to be the villain last summer.

After his Tampa Bay Lightning hoisted the Stanley Cup for a second straight season, the star winger sported a T-shirt with the slogan "$18M Over the Cap" in response to criticism the team had unfairly gamed the NHL system.

Tampa was salary cap compliant during the regular season, but that threshold — $81.5 million US at the time — doesn't apply during the playoffs when rosters expand.

Kucherov, who was on long-term injured reserve for the duration of the league's 56-game campaign, would go onto put up 32 points in 23 playoff contests.

"We had a great season," Carolina defenceman Dougie Hamilton said after the Hurricanes were eliminated by Tampa in the second round. "We lost to a team that's $18 million over the cap.

Stretching the salary cap into the playoffs was one of the subjects talked about by the NHL's 32 general managers at this week's annual meetings in Manalapan, Fla., but that's as far as things went.

At least for now.

"A lot gets made of it," Calgary Flames GM Brad Treliving said Tuesday. "Nobody thinks there's been abuse of it to the extent that there's something that needs to change.

"It was a healthy discussion."

Treliving added the Kucherov situation which included his $9.5-million cap hit being off Tampa's books during the season — allowing the Lightning to add more talent, and then becoming irrelevant in the playoffs — was the reason for momentum around the issue ahead of the first in-person GM meetings since March 2020.

"What doesn't get talked about is Kucherov didn't play all year," he said. "The league will review it.

"If there's a need or requirement for change, we'll talk about."

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman said the system has worked well