An NHL executive recently stated that due to the worldwide economic downturn that their salary cap may end up going down quite a bit over the next 2 years. The way the NHL's cap is set up is very similar to the NBA's. Not much will change this season since most of the revenue has already been brought in. The salary cap for next year will likely be set around the same or possibly higher then this years since it is based on the previous years income. Where the big change will be is in the summer of 2010. That is when the league will calculate the BRI for the 09/10 season and if it comes up short of the estimates then the players may lose all the money that is put in escrow for them and possibly even have money left to pay back to the owners the following season.
Who will this effect the most? Since the salary cap will likely go down, the Free Agent class of 2010 and the teams positioning themselves to make a run for them will be the hardest hit. Chances are that the teams with cap room will not have as much room as they had planned which may make it harder for teams to lure away the young stars. Players such as Lebron, Wade, and Bosh signed shorter extensions in order to hit the FA market as early as they could and capitalize with a massive contract but they may end up with less options then they hoped for. Is their eagerness to get the big contract going to come back to bite them in the ***? Will any of them be willing to take less money in that situation to be on the right team? And could this do damage to teams hopes of signing a big name FA in the summer of 2010?
