• What we learned at the GM Meetings• Goal scoring up, power plays down• Landeskog trying to come back
Now that commissioner Gary Bettman has come right out and said there will be CBA negotiations with the NHLPA, it’s time to write about everyone’s least-favourite topic.
Taxes.
No one likes calculating them, paying them, worrying about them, everything about them.
Hockey is supposed to be an escape from them. Alas, no more.
It’s taken me a long time to warm up to the idea that non-tax states — like Florida, Nevada, Tennessee, Texas and Washington — have a competitive advantage that needs to be addressed. Everywhere you can live has advantages and disadvantages. Life is about making the best of both, right?
Plus, if you’re a bad organization, low taxes won’t save you.
Maybe it’s my Canadian bias. Maybe it’s our dollar dropping to the abyss while this country’s Stanley Cup drought stands at 31 years. Maybe it’s because the NHL and NHLPA shouldn’t take their most passionate fans for granted. Someday, even they will turn away if unwilling to believe their teams can win.
Maybe it’s because one of my remaining career goals is covering a Canadian champion. I don’t care which of the seven it is, as long as one does it before professionally I am fired into the sun. Although a young-looking 54, I’m much closer to the end than the beginning.
Any potential solution must be part of CBA discussions. It is possible this is a futile exercise, because this won’t be a priority unless enough teams and players wish to make it so. If I was a player on a Canada- or California-based team, I’d be pushing for it. But, those with low taxation won’t be eager to punish themselves.
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Whatever the case, I’ve been soliciting ideas. Here’s the one I like best: teams in non-zero tax locations should get small relief in one particular situation — signing players to contracts that involve unrestricted free agency.
The vast, vast majority of players don’t reach UFA status until they are 27 or have played seven seasons. A few get there sooner — those who are undrafted, unsigned after being drafted, or don’t play enough NHL games in their first few professional seasons. But for the purposes of this exercise, we are only using the “27-and-seven” criteria.
Auston Matthews will be our key example. The Maple Leafs draft Matthews. That’s not his choice. He’s picked by them. No relief for the team.
Before his entry-level contract expired, Matthews signed a five-year extension with an $11.634 million cap hit. Matthews was not eligible for unrestricted free agency until the fifth and final season of that deal. Since Toronto would have the right to match any contract offered during the first four of those seasons, they do not get relief during that time.
But in Year Five, they do. At that point, Matthews is choosing to stay in Toronto rather than go elsewhere. (If you want to use Connor McDavid as the example, Edmonton would not get any break for the first four years of his current eight-year contract. But it would for the last four.)
And, when Matthews extends four more years, as he agreed to in 2023, every season is eligible for this “credit.” No team receives any relief unless a 27-and-seven player invests UFA seasons in a tax market.
There are other questions that would need to be answered:
First, who qualifies? California and Canadian teams for sure, but what’s the cutoff? There are many franchises with a rate between zero and Quebec. To avoid giving Bettman a headache he won’t want, calculate each team’s discount based on the effective tax rate where they are located compared to those with no income tax. (The NHL/NHLPA could set a limit if the largest difference is too wide for everyone’s liking. On a $10 million player, I believe the Rangers would be 18 percentage points higher than the no-tax teams; Montreal, Ottawa and Toronto 17. I could see some screaming that’s too much.)
Second, how does everyone feel about extra salary in the system that doesn’t count against the ceiling? There have been times (2005 and 2013) when teams were given the opportunity to buy out players and not have it count against their cap totals. It hasn’t happened since because teams didn’t want to pay salaries that aren’t part of the 50/50 revenue share.
We’ll see. Probably doesn’t happen. But my primary audience is Canada, and those fans are passionate about this topic. Don’t take your golden goose for granted.
32 THOUGHTS
1. Let’s empty the GM meeting notebook. If you’ve been around long enough — media member or passionate fan — you recognize storm clouds on the labour horizon. That’s not the case in 2025. The salary cap is set for the next three seasons (assuming tariff lunacy doesn’t throw everything into chaos). There isn’t some gigantic philosophical hurdle blocking peace.
Could the players ask for a piece of expansion revenue? Sure, they could try. Could the league try to shorten contract length or change the financial structure to limit July 1 bonuses? Sure, they could try. The personalities involved here don’t mind challenging one another or pushing to see what they can get away with, but no one’s itching for a fight. Bettman said at last fall’s Board of Governors he would love to announce something at his annual Stanley Cup State of the Union. That’s ambitious, but, if we are talking about changing some parts of the current CBA as opposed to re-writing it, not impossible.
2. Bettman re-iterated he’s dead-set against expanded playoffs, but I would expect the players to ask about changing the format to one-versus-eight, etc., in each conference. (Don’t even think about one-versus 16. Talk about travel nightmares.)
As one player texted Wednesday, “Dallas and Colorado are third and sixth in the NHL. If there’s a way to avoid having them meet in the first round, we should find it.” One of the ways I look at the playoffs is not when you lose, but who you lose to. If the Avalanche and Stars do meet, I’m not going to look at the loser and say, “That’s an opening-round playoff choker.” That could be a Stanley Cup Final.
3. Bettman and Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly were careful not to get into any negotiation wish lists or strategies. Near the end of each regular season, the NHLPA schedules agent meetings in Los Angeles, New York and Toronto to touch base and discuss important topics. Not this year. The Cone of Silence is upon us.
4. Monday night, the architect of the two-time Stanley Cup champion Los Angeles Kings, Dean Lombardi, was honoured by his peers. “As long as you thought his speech would be,” one laughed, “it was longer.” During a vintage performance, Lombardi waxed poetic about the necessity of great drafting/great development, admitting surprise at Vegas and Florida winning via a different model: attracting players raised elsewhere to highly-desired locations/organizations. He closed by addressing a major problem: cost. Lombardi warned the game is too expensive for so many children/families to play that it excludes good athletes from picking up the sport. He took pains not to blame the NHL for it, calling it a grassroots problem, but thought it was important to mention it to that audience.
5. Expanded three-on-three, which energized fans during Canada-Sweden at the 4 Nations, fizzled like my Western University pickup attempts. Players were concerned it wouldn’t mean more opportunity for those who don’t normally get it, but even more dependence on those who already do. Bettman referenced injury and ice conditions.
I was reminded afterwards he’s also very aware of the clock. He does not like longer games, and has data that, outside of playoffs, fans don’t either. This season, 74 per cent of games going into overtime end before the shootout, the highest ever. (In 2014-15, the final season of four-on-four, the number was 44 per cent.) So they left it alone.
6. At the November GM meetings, one manager laughed recalling Bettman discussing the decentralized draft: “He reminded us this was our idea. He wasn’t hiding that he didn’t like it.” He did it again on Tuesday, then publicly on Wednesday. After last season’s super successful Sphere presentation, there was conversation about reversing the decision to decentralize this June, but the commitment was already made and it wasn’t like every year was going to be at Sphere. Now there’s definitely “Buyer’s Remorse,” as a couple of people put it.
Bettman said there will be a full debrief afterwards, and he doesn’t want flip-floppery — decide how the draft should be done and stick with it. My vote: everyone there. It’s hockey’s thing and the sport should be proud of that. Bettman also made it clear he wants all first-rounders in attendance, so Central Scouting and the teams will have to work together on that. (I’ve already heard from some prospects nervous about paying their way to go there and sitting longer than you want, since more than 32 will be asked to go. No one likes seeing that.) A “virtual room” is being created where players will “meet” their new team, while the league is working on guests to announce the selections — Celine Dion and Michael Buffer were tremendous last year. Those named to the NHL’s 21st-century team may be on-site, so they could announce picks, too.
7. The NHL would like to have some idea by start of the playoffs how next season’s All-Star Extravaganza will look. They don’t want to cancel it and they shouldn’t. When the 2026 edition was announced on Long Island, it was discussed as a “gateway to the Olympics,” since the players will leave from New York to Milan. There’s no reason to think any different. The All-Star Game itself is a goner. We never need to see it again. But you can still have a skills competition — I like it better than the game anyway — and there are plenty of things you can do to celebrate the sport and make fans/sponsors happy. (Make no mistake, All-Star is big for the sponsors.)
You can have the players do clinics for kids, you can have autograph sessions, Q&A fan forums, kiss babies, take selfies. Player versus player in NHL trivia. Make it a two-day event, one for skills, the other a convention of fun. Have a women’s game, have some kind of prospects game. There’s no shortage of ideas. You don’t need an All-Star Game to have a successful All-Star event. I’d argue you can make the weekend even better.
8. The Hockey Operations Department was ready for goaltender interference complaints. They knew managers felt things were getting too soft, that goalies are being treated too daintily. Fine. Here are 54 plays, tell us how you’d vote. As it turns out, the majority of the managers sided with 52 of those rulings. Teams on the cutline essentially are in the playoffs now, and the real stuff starts April 19. Guys will go hard at the net. Number one rule of goalie interference: do not go into the blue area on your own. And if you do, get out of there as fast as possible. It is the surest way to get a goal disallowed.
9. Hockey Ops staff ran through some of the questions asked during a review: Did the contact happen in blue ice or white ice? Was the contact deliberate or accidental? Can the goalie do his job? Does the goalie have time to reset? Is there any information the officials have on ice that we do not? Was it the actions of the attacking or defending player that caused the contact?
One thing that stuck with me: we were shown Brock Nelson’s goal that made it 5-2 for the Islanders over Nashville on March 1. Kyle Palmieri bumps Jusse Saros.
The Predators challenge and lose. Contact is outside the crease. But Hockey Ops says they watch Palmieri’s eyes. He’s looking at Nelson, the shooter, the whole time. He’s not focusing on Saros. That factored into their decision. I try to remember this stuff in case anything similar happens during a game we’re broadcasting. You’re always looking for patterns.
10. Two other examples were excellent reminders as the playoffs approach. First, Pontus Holmberg’s empty netter from Toronto’s 5-2 win over Chicago on Feb. 23.
That seems an obvious offside. But watch John Tavares. His stick does not touch the puck across the blue line until after the Maple Leafs clear the zone. So that’s a good goal.
11. Finally: Cole Caufield’s 6-5 goal from Montreal’s win at Buffalo on Remembrance Day. The Sabres challenge because the puck hit Mike Matheson’s glove, but the Situation Room rules that is a deflected puck, not a gloved pass.
The Sabres tried to get the score erased as a missed offensive-zone stoppage.
12. To me, the bigger concern with the coaches’ challenge is that we are all suffering from replay fatigue. There’s too much of it (and I confess I was one of the biggest supporters of video review when it arrived and expanded). Last season, there were 88 goaltender interference challenges, with 48 reversals. In 2024-25, we are waaaaaaay past those numbers already: 105 and 60. But there’s no plan to decrease video review. Hard to put the genie back in the bottle.
13. Only real concern from otherwise magnificent 4 Nations: making sure NHL teams have access to information when their players suffer injuries. Hopefully none happen, but with the Olympics half a world away and other federations in control, no one wants an information vacuum.
14. Eleven years ago, former major league catcher Mike Matheny sat before baseball’s Rules Committee, passionately arguing for a ban on home-plate collisions. Matheny, whose playing career ended due to concussions, didn’t get everything he asked for. But, due to his persistence, MLB and the players’ union agreed contact could only occur if a catcher already fielded a throw and set up to block the plate before a runner arrived.
I was reminded of that as Tom Fitzgerald detailed what he and wife Kerry went through just after Christmas when son Casey — playing for AHL Hartford — was cut by a skate blade to the neck. AHL players must wear neck protection, but testing is underway to improve it and cover even more skin. Right now, this isn’t mandated for NHLers, but you can see the day it comes, just like helmets and visors. It starts at the youth level, and eventually will be second nature to future generations of players. Amazingly, Montreal’s Josh Anderson was saved from a potentially serious skate cut Tuesday night when he wore Kevlar socks for the first time. Hopefully, that gets noticed.
15. Fitzgerald floated the idea of making it mandatory for the Devils regardless of NHLPA approval. There’s some history with these attempts. When Jay Feaster was GM of the Flames, a Mark Giordano injury had the team tell its players to wear plastic shot-blocking shields around their skates. The union blocked that one. Glen Sather agreed the NHLPA needed to approve but countered by saying he wouldn’t dress anyone who didn’t follow his injury-prevention moves. Sather demanded players wear helmets in warmups long before it was mandatory and had equipment staff insert a thicker “flat-top” on gloves.
Former Rangers captain Ryan Callahan was listening to an NHL Radio hit where I described this, and texted, saying the GM wanted the glove reinforcement after Kris Letang broke his hand. Suffice it to say, Callahan added, the other Rangers weren’t crazy about it. Sather also made players wear Mark Messier‘s old leather gloves in practice because he thought that they were more protective. They came up to the elbows and guys couldn’t feel their sticks. Only Sather could get away with it.
16. Some numbers provided to us by the NHL: We are seeing the highest percentage of even strength goals since 1972-73 (77.8); the best power play success rate since 1985-86 (21.6); and the best shooting percentage since 1993-94 (10.5). Jason Gregor did some interesting work this week on overall power plays being down. I’ll have to watch that more closely to come up with a hypothesis. There are always missed calls, of course, but I don’t know that it’s more egregious than ever. The league says the one-goal “comeback wins” rate is at 42 per cent, second-highest in history; we are on-pace for the highest total of “close games” ever, with the score tied or within one goal for an average of 43 minutes per game. As a result, there is a projected total of a record 432 empty-net goals.
17. NHL representatives continued discussions with the various developmental leagues (USHL, USA Hockey, CHL) about the future of junior hockey in North America. Until/Unless a new CBA changes things, NHL teams were told draft rights remain two years from the CHL, four years from USHL, NCAA, Europe and associated branches.
18. One more junior note: the WHL is announcing Thursday a new streaming deal with Victory+. That app is growing in power and popularity in hockey circles. Already a rightsholder for the Anaheim Ducks and Dallas Stars, it added three St. Louis games in February and March. (Dallas owner Tom Gaglardi also owns WHL Kamloops.) Beginning next Friday, all regular-season and the first three playoff rounds will be streamed for free without geo-restrictions — a big, important step for the league. You must make your games accessible and available, get them to your fans rather than making them come to you. This is where we are, and the sooner leagues get there, the better off they will be.
19. You’d have to be soulless not to cheer for Gabriel Landeskog’s comeback, especially watching the documentary about his recovery. I’m no different than anyone else, wishing it into existence. There’ve been stops and starts on this journey, so what I’m watching for is a longer resume of good-looking skates. Will Landeskog join AHL Colorado for a sustained run of practice? That would be a great sign, because the condensed NHL schedule makes it harder to find that consistency. The Avalanche would need some LTIR juggling to activate him in-season, but that’s not a concern in the playoffs. I’d love to see him get a playoff game as a reward for three years of work.
20. Vancouver’s told Rick Tocchet it wishes to extend him. As Tocchet told teammate Iain MacIntyre, this is not the time. We’re paid to speculate about it, but the coach himself sees it one way: he wants the Canucks focused on making the playoffs, and his eyes are on the same prize. After the season, a bigger conversation gets this sorted out one way or another.
21. Massive games Thursday night for those in the playoff chase: Calgary/New Jersey, Colorado/Ottawa, Toronto/Rangers, Florida/Columbus, Buffalo/Utah and especially Montreal/Islanders, Vancouver/St. Louis. As rumours swirled around Brayden Schenn, heard in the aftermath Blues players made it clear they wanted him to stay, they could make the playoffs with him. Big test tonight.
22. As Alexander Ovechkin continues his Gretzky chase, our cameras found something interesting from the Capitals’ Feb. 23 game against Edmonton. Son Sergei switched seats each period so he was always in the offensive zone, near the famous left circle. When Ovechkin completed his hat trick that day with an empty netter, he had a longer skate to celebrate with Sergei. Not that he minded.
23. Zack Ostapchuk earned the respect of his new San Jose teammates the hard way: challenging one of the NHL’s toughest, Tom Wilson. After they fought last Saturday, we thought the continued yelling between them was Ostapchuk letting the Capital crusher know he wouldn’t back down and was ready for more. But someone reached out to say that wasn’t the case. Wilson, impressed, asked Ostapchuk where he came from and how much he fought.
24. John Prokop is a nice bet for Toronto. The Maple Leafs just traded two first-rounders and two prospects for Brandon Carlo and Scott Laughton. You need to fill your prospect pool. They aren’t done with free-agent shopping, trying for a centre.
25. Michigan State is expected to be the No. 1 seed in the upcoming NCAA tournament. Karsen Dorwart, their second-leading scorer behind Tampa’s Isaac Howard, nearly went to the Maple Leafs one year ago, but returned to school. Several teams suspect Philadelphia lusts after him like an Angelo’s cheesesteak.
26. Of all these free agents, there is no one more deserving of success than Minnesota-Duluth’s Will Francis, signing with San Diego, the AHL affiliate of Anaheim, which drafted him in 2019. Now 24, the defenceman was diagnosed with leukemia five years ago, the first of three cancer diagnoses in that span. He had a bone marrow transplant last April. Go get ’em, Will.
27. Very interesting hearing the Senators players discuss why they thought this year had a chance to be different. Several said the same thing: everyone showed up early and in shape. “Good thing, because (Travis Green) runs a hard camp,” Thomas Chabot laughed.
28. Small thing Anaheim did at the deadline: trading Brian Dumoulin (and getting a good return) opened space for both Pavel Mintyukov and Olen Zellweger to regularly play. The Ducks were content to let them face some adversity and battle for their ice time, but other teams were waiting to see if either lost patience. Not an issue anymore. I think there’s some frustration John Gibson didn’t get moved (from the player, the Ducks themselves and other clubs that have engaged) so that will kick up again in the off-season. Another Western GM said you can see the young Ducks starting to figure it out.
29. One name to keep watching in NHL coaching circles: Olli Jokinen, who played 1,231 NHL games from 1997-2015. He’s making a name for himself overseas, first in Finland, now in Sweden. A recent newspaper poll of players named him as the coach they’d most like to play for. He’s made it known he’s willing to be an NHL assistant.
30. After he retires, there’s going to be a five-part podcast series on Mikko Rantanen’s 2025 trade deadline.
31. Olympic teams asked for a later deadline to name their roster than the 4 Nations, which were announced in the first week of December. They got it: New Year’s Eve.
32. Forgot to mention this in a previous blog, but the morning of Canada’s must-win game against Finland in the 4 Nations, I went down to the hotel lobby to leave for the rink. You know what song was playing? Gloria. Doug Armstrong, Jordan Binnington, Colton Parayko. No way they were going to lose.
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