Elliotte Friedman Reveals Idea To Level The Playing Field In Favour Of Canadian Teams In The NHL
Photo credit: Sergei Belski-Imagn Images
Teams in Vegas, Florida and Texas undoubtedly have major advantages in the NHL given their state taxes, and now a top NHL Insider wants to change that.
For quite some time now, fans of the NHL have argued that teams in states with no state taxes have an unfair advantage, but thus far, any talks of changing that and levelling the playing field has been shut down.
However, with the new NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement set to be discussed very soon, it's a topic. that Elliotte Friedman recently discussed on the 32 Thoughts Podcast, noting that it needs to be discussed, but that will only happen if Canadian and California based teams especially push for it.
«Any potential solution must be part of CBA discussions. It is possible this is a futile exercise, because this won't be a priority unless enough teams and players wish to make it so. If I was a player on a Canada- or California-based team, I'd be pushing for it. But, those with low taxation won't be eager to punish themselves.»
In the past few years especially, we've seen free agents from Canadian teams quickly push to land in the United States given the potential savings, with the perfect example being Nikita Zadorov, who chose the Boston Bruins over the Vancouver Canucks this past summer.
Over the lifetime of his deal, he will save over $3 million in taxes by choosing Boston over Vancouver for absolutely nothing that either team did, but simply the way things work in those places, and now, Friedman suggests that needs to be looked at.
Whether Gary Bettman will want to give Canadian teams a hand or not is unlikely at this point in time given what we've seen in recent years, but if it's pushed for hard enough, we could see a major change on this front.
| POLL | ||
MARS 26 | 398 ANSWERS Elliotte Friedman Reveals Idea To Level The Playing Field In Favour Of Canadian Teams In The NHL Should the playing field be levelled when it comes to state taxes in the NHL? | ||
| Yes | 332 | 83.4 % |
| No | 66 | 16.6 % |
| List of polls | ||
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