The rise or fall in the NHL Salary Cap for next year will basically come down to whether the players currently under contract want to give up even more of their salary to Escrow or whether or not they want those who will be looking to cash in in free agency to get their slice of the pie as will.
It will be interesting to see if the players vote to implement the escalator clause or not, which will determine what the spending threshold will be for next season. Either way, it isn't going to go up by much, but could even go down below $70M.
Which brings me to the Senators situation. Obviously they haven't been a cap team for a while, but will the cap level that is decided upon in the next couple of weeks affect the budget that Pierre Dorion has to work with?
Ottawa's revenues have climbed, so logic might dictate that even if the cap goes down, they could afford to spend more and get closer to the cap number than they have for some time. Or it could give Melnyk an excuse to rein in spending despite the fact that there will also likely be a nice expansion bonus cheque coming in the near future that is not going to be included in cap calculations or hockey related revenue.
The Senators are still reaping in more TV money than they ever have, and with the Bell Media regional deal apparently escalating year by year, that will continue. That is, depending upon what currency the regional broadcast deal is in. Any article I can find from the time the deal was signed in January 2014, it was a 12 year, $400M deal but I could never find anything indicating it was in US or Canadian Dollars, or even Pesos. (If anyone can confirm one way or another that would be appreciated).
But from a Canadian company to another Canadian based entity, if you assume for a second that the dollars are indeed Loonies instead of Benjamins, then the Senators might not have cashed in as much as Eugene Melnyk would have hoped. $30M(ish) Canadian doesn't pay for as many US$ salaries as it did when the deal was signed.
And that could affect the bottom line, and what level of spending Melnyk is committed to, regardless of whether the cap goes up or down. Melnyk's own club's revenues, due to the exchange rate, would have ended up being less than anticipated with the added kcker that there were no playoff home dates to boost the numbers.
I am putting this out there with a large variable, knowing that I might be completely wrong and the first person who reads this might provide evidence stating that the deal is indeed in US$, but I couldn't find it at the ready.
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