NHL Insider shares info that American NHL teams have great advantage
American teams in the NHL have an unfair juxtaposition to teams in Canada when it comes to the tax structure.
This imbalance lends to the American teams being able to collect talent with ease, compared to a team like the Winnipeg Jets. Take, for example, Frank Seravalli used the deal the Vegas Golden Knights signed recently with Noah Hanifin.
Hanifin signed his long-term, 8-year $7.35 Million AAV deal with the Knights, which the Calgary Flames offered him more, but he wouldn't sign there.
Frank Seravalli went over the fact that even though Hanifin would've had a higher AAV in Calgary, his income would be eaten into by taxes as he'd reside in Canada.
While his overall salary in Vegas is lower, the tax structure is different and allows him to keep more of his salary.
In Vegas, $7.35m AAV results in net pay of $37.364 million.
In Calgary, $7.5m AAV results in net pay of $31.5 million
That's $1.2 million less in gross pay for $6.134 million more in net pay.
This is a huge revelation, that a player like Hanifin will be able to keep a million dollars more of his salary in Vegas, compared to Calgary. This gives the NHL teams in America a huge benefit, as they can pay them more, while the effect on the salary cap is less on an American team.
While players are paid in US dollars in Canada, there is still a slight advantage there given the exchange rate, but that may not be a big enough benefit to convince many players to stay.
This could be out of the NHL's purview of how to handle it, but it should be a topic the NHL and NHLPA figure out if parity is to be maintained in the league.
Source: Hockey Patrol
Seravalli brings light to the unfair advantages of American NHL teamsArray
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