What we learned in annual ‘state of NHL’ availability: CBA won’t tackle state taxes, plus LTIR, more

EDMONTON — At the outset of a Stanley Cup Final featuring a Florida-based team for the sixth straight year, NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly told reporters that there will be no changes included in the upcoming collective bargaining agreement to account for any of the perceived advantages teams based in tax-friendly jurisdictions enjoy.

While Daly acknowledged that some of the league’s clubs have raised that as an issue, he said the NHL’s head office doesn’t “share the level of concern that they have.”

“These imbalances have existed forever,” Daly said Wednesday. “There’s nothing new here. There are so many reasons why a player may choose to play in a particular location, for a particular team, for a particular coach that have nothing to do with the tax situation in that market.

“So, I don’t think it’s anything we’re going to address proactively as part of this collective bargaining negotiation.”

The topic has taken on a life of its own since the Florida Panthers clinched their third straight trip to the Stanley Cup Final. That came on the heels of the Tampa Bay Lightning representing the Eastern Conference in the Final for the three seasons before that.

Speaking on Tuesday, Panthers general manager Bill Zito said he believes the team only sees a “marginal” advantage in attracting players to a market with no state income tax, citing everything from the weather to strong ownership to a successful culture as things that have made his organization a destination.

Just like the league, the NHL Players’ Association isn’t convinced there’s an issue in need of addressing when it comes to tax benefits.

“From 2008 until 2020, who ran this league? Pittsburgh, Chicago, Los Angeles, Detroit for a brief amount of time, Boston,” said Ron Hainsey, the NHLPA’s assistant executive director. “Certainly (Brad) Marchand and (Patrice) Bergeron and (Zdeno) Chara could have made more money somewhere else. They didn’t. They chose to stay. They were a good team and made it to the Final a bunch of times. Pittsburgh, I’m certain Sid (Crosby) or (Evgeni Malkin) or (Kris) Letang could have made more money somewhere else. They stayed there the whole time. Why? Good team. Liked where they lived. Didn’t want to move. Do the same thing in L.A.

“What do they all have in common? They all have a different tax situation than Florida. That was 12 years. Now we’ve had six years of Tampa, Tampa, Tampa, Florida, Florida, Florida — just going off the previous 12, I guess we’ve got to wait six more years to see if there even is an issue.

“To react this way out there because Florida and Tampa are having their moment here where the players, good teams, took less to stay. It’s the same thing that’s happened the previous 12 years, right, with all of these other things?

“When we talk about, ‘Is it really an issue?’ I’m not certain that it is. I don’t know if we could expect Florida and Tampa to not be great at some point in the cycle here. That’s really where we’re at at the moment.”

CBA close

All indications are that the NHL and NHL Players’ Association are getting closer on a CBA extension, but Bettman wasn’t ready yet to say it’s close to done.

Bettman last fall at the Board of Governors meeting in New York suggested that if all went well, he could have a new CBA to announce at this Cup Final. But it’s not there yet.

“We are having very constructive, professional, cordial dialogue,” Bettman said. “We started a little bit later than we had anticipated for a variety of reasons on both sides, so I don’t have an announcement to make today that we have a deal.

“But we have more than a year to go (before the CBA expires in September of 2026), and I think we’re in really good shape, having really good discussions.”

The sides began officially negotiating in early April and have stayed at it pretty consistently. They will have more CBA sessions during the Stanley Cup Final.

“We’re having good, ongoing conversations,” NHLPA executive director Marty Walsh said after Bettman’s news conference. “This time of year’s hard because we have the Stanley Cup playoffs and the Stanley Cup, but it’s moving steady. It’s moving forward. I feel good with where we are, and we’ll see what happens. It gets complicated at certain times, any collective bargaining agreement, but it’s not where it was in the past here, where you’re seeing national disputes between organized labor and companies.”

Are we looking at a matter of days or weeks for the deal to be complete?

“I can’t answer that,” Walsh said. “We didn’t start till April, so a slow start there, so I’m not going to give any timeline on that.”

Hockey Canada trial

Bettman reiterated that the league won’t have anything to say on the five players on trial in London, Ontario, until those proceedings are over. He was asked what the league would do if all five players are found not guilty.

“We have said continuously that we are going to not make any comments about what’s going on, we’re going to let the judicial process do what the judicial process has to do and at that point will decide what, if anything, we need to do,” Bettman said. “We want to respect the process.”

But before moving on, Bettman added, “But we will make one thing continuously clear every time I’ve ever been asked about this: What has been alleged is abhorrent, disgusting and shouldn’t be tolerated.”

Succession plan

Bettman probably knew the question was coming, but he once again downplayed any notion that he will step down anytime soon as NHL commissioner or that he has a succession plan in place.

“The rumblings seem to all emanate from you,” Bettman said in a playful dig at me (LeBrun), which goes back to asking him about it after the GM meetings in March, as well. “There’s nothing new to report. I continue to love what I do. I continue to be energized, and I do acknowledge that age at some point, I suppose, can become a factor. But as I sit here today with you, it’s not. Sorry to disappoint.’’

Well, to be fair, we did not start the rumblings on his future. One of his owners, Craig Leipold, did, back in January.

Expansion process

As Daly noted in a Q&A with The Athletic two weeks ago, the league doesn’t anticipate opening a traditional expansion process as much as continuing to listen to interested parties and perhaps acting on it from there at some point in time.

“We’ve gotten a lot of interest in people and markets who want to host NHL cities, and we take a lot of meetings about them,” Daly reiterated Wednesday. “We’ve decided we’re not going to engage in a formal expansion process, but if someone wants to essentially apply for an expansion franchise and has all the requisite elements that we would look for in an expansion franchise, we would raise with the Board of Governors and see if they have any interest.”

It certainly appears that it’s just a matter of time before Houston and Atlanta get a look.

“There are some people that we’ve talked to more than others, but there’s a lot of interest, which I think we’re gratified by,” Daly said.

Movement on LTIR loophole

Daly also revealed during the Q&A with The Athletic two weeks ago that the league and the NHLPA have agreed to tweak the long-term-injured-reserve loophole when it comes to no salary cap in the playoffs and how some teams have taken advantage of that.

Hainsey confirmed that it was a matter of high importance to the league, as well, and is being addressed in the next CBA.

“I don’t want to get too into one item or another, but obviously it’s an issue that the league has made a priority for them, right?” Hainsey said. “And we continue to discuss a mechanism to deal with that, right? And I think there is some evidence that it’s being used more and more, right? When it was like one every couple years, that was one thing. So it has come up with the players, certainly at different times, either publicly or privately.”

Russia and the Olympics

Asked about Russia and the Olympics, Daly had a pertinent update.

“As of right now, and I don’t expect it to change, the IOC and IIHF have made an announcement that there won’t be Russian team participation in the Olympics. At this point in time, we don’t expect Russia participation.”

(Top photo of Gary Bettman and Bill Daly: Bruce Bennett / Getty Images)

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