Maple Leafs in hot water with the NHL over an alleged "violation of CBA rules"
Gary Bettman and the NHL are keeping a close eye on the Maple Leafs and may be looking to make an example of them over the Chris Tanev deal.
Giving players extra years on their contracts is nothing new. In a cap league, every penny you can save is valuable. As such, teams have been signing players, including older ones, to longer-term deals to keep their cap hits lower.
While this has been happening for years, it now appears that NHL commissioner Gary Bettman suddenly has a problem with it. Why? Because the Toronto Maple Leafs signed Chris Tanev, and apparently, the Leafs live rent-free in everybody's head.
The Hockey News' Jim Parsons reports that the league may have some problems with Tanev's contract, particularly the later years of his deal.
On July 1st, 34-year old defenseman Chris Tanev signed a 6-year, $27 million contract ($4.5 million AAV) with the Toronto Maple Leafs. While he's not very old, he's far from young and that contract runs until he likely retires.
The real concern for the league is Tanev's injury history. While he has been relatively healthy the past few season, he has still missed significant time due to various injuries over his career. Bettman and co. worry that the Leafs may use LTIR (long-term injured reserve) to avoid keeping his cap hit on the books during the later years of his deal.
Will he complete his deal? It's certainly possible. It's also possible that he is unable to should age and injuries catch up with him. According Eric Duhatschek of The Athletic, the league may use the Tanev contract as an example of cap circumvention if he does end up on LTIR later in his career.
Guess what? Too bloody bad. According to the CBA (collective bargaining agreement) the Leafs have done nothing wrong. At all. Any loophole that breaks the "spirit" of the agreement has been there since 2012. The NHL has been totally cool with this for over a decade. They could have shut this down for any team at any time.
Now, as is tradition when the Leafs do anything at all, it's magically news. It's truly incredible how Gary Bettman will fight like hell for a tv deal to keep hockey in markets where more people watch lawn darts and bowling. The moment a team that keeps half the league afloat does anything that could be PERCEIVED as MAYBE unfair, the hammer comes down on them. Remember when the Leafs got in trouble for allowing refs to run scrimmages at their practice facility during the summer because some teams couldn't afford to do it too? Yeah. Me too.
Before Bettman worked for the NBA (and later the NHL), he went to law school. He knows damn well how the CBA is written and everything about it. To have an issue with it now just makes him a hypocrite. If the league wanted this loophole shut, it would not have voted to extend the current CBA.
It is an endless wave of petty nonsense with this man. I can't believe I haven't been fined by the league yet for pointing it out. Any day now...
Source: The Athletic, The Hockey News via Hockey Feed
Report: Bettman 'scrutinizing' Leafs' contract for violating CBA rules
| POLL | ||
AOUT 1 | 2130 ANSWERS Maple Leafs in hot water with the NHL over an alleged "violation of CBA rules" Will Chris Tanev play out all 6 years of his deal in Toronto? | ||
| Yes, he'll play all 6 | 395 | 18.5 % |
| No, but he'll play 5 years of the 6 | 543 | 25.5 % |
| No, he'll play 4 years or less of that deal | 1192 | 56 % |
| List of polls | ||
