Don’t yell at me. I didn’t make the rules. And don’t yell at the Tampa Bay Lightning either. They didn’t make them, nor did they break them. They just played by them better than anyone else, and it resulted in their second straight Stanley Cup.
Everyone looks for an edge in competitive sports. If you are yelling right now, there’s a good chance you’re a fan of another NHL team that either lost to the Lightning in the playoffs or wasn’t good enough to compete.
The common complaint is that they operated $18 million (U.S.) over the hard salary cap of $81.5 million, hence they could pay more players and create an edge. It’s not as clear as that.
The key point is that there are different rules for the regular season, when the cap is in place, and the playoffs, when it isn’t. Let’s simplify it. During the regular season there is an allowance for overages caused by long-term injuries. If you lose a player for 24 days/10 games, you can replace him and his money on your roster.
Seems simple enough. Hockey is a contact sport played at a high rate of speed, and injuries are inevitable. This is where the fun begins.
Superstar Nikita Kucherov decided before the season to have hip surgery. That was step one. A team that was going to be tightly pressed against the cap now had Kucherov’s $9.5-million annual salary as a cushion after placing him on long-term injured reserve, or LTIR. They also wouldn’t have one of the top forwards in the league on their roster.
Step two occurred just before the trade deadline in early May, when captain Steven Stamkos was placed on LTIR with a lower-body injury and his $8.5 million came off the books as well. That plus Kucherov’s salary is where the $18-million figure came from — simple, but perhaps not exact. It also meant the team was without two stars.
It wasn’t the first time this has happened, nor will it be the last if the current rules remain in place. A total of 17 teams were over the hard cap late in the season. The phrase “everyone does it” is not far off. Tampa just did it bigger and better.
The most celebrated previous example was in 2015 with the Chicago Blackhawks and superstar Patrick Kane, who was injured just before the trade deadline. Management used his money to acquire three players for the stretch run. Those players all performed well through season’s end, and were available along with a healthy Kane when the cap-free playoffs began. Similar to this year with Kucherov, Kane was spectacular in leading the Hawks to their third Cup in six years, and the “fair or not fair?” arguments were born.
Let’s put the $18-million argument aside and take a hard look at why the Lightning will have their names etched in Lord Stanley’s Cup for the second time in as many years, starting at the top.
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- Their owner, Jeff Vinik, provides all of the resources needed to be a champion.
- General manager Julien BriseBois was part of a well-constructed succession plan, hired by Steve Yzerman in 2010 shortly after Yzerman landed in Tampa. BriseBois took over seamlessly in 2018, having been in the organization for the building years.
- Coach Jon Cooper won his sixth championship at four levels in the last 15 years. Hired out of Tier Two junior in Green Bay in 2010, Cooper has proven to be the rare communicator who connects with all of his players.
- Their drafting has been remarkable, starting with Alex Killorn in 2007. Each year after that through 2016, they added at least one significant player or traded the asset for a current contributor. They’ve hit high with Stamkos at No. 1 overall in 2008 and Victor Hedman at No. 2 in 2009, and unearthed gems including Kucherov in the second round in 2011, and Brayden Point and Anthony Cirelli in the third rounds of successive years.
- Their trading has been strong, with five of six starters on defence acquired in this manner. Two members of their vaunted third line, Blake Coleman and Barclay Goodrow, were added at last year’s trade deadline. The third, Yanni Gourde, was undrafted out of junior.
- Their players have improved, to a man — which every team would like to say but few can. They understand the team concept and compete at an unmatched level.
- They have one of the best at each position, with 26-year-old Andrei Vasilevskiy considered the top goalie in the league, Hedman a former Norris Trophy winner, and Point and Kucherov perhaps among the top 10 forwards in the league.
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Like it or not, they are deserving of their rewards, winning in two of the most challenging seasons imaginable. Dismiss the thought that they’ve only won because they somehow circumvented the rules.
The Tampa Bay Lightning have performed better than everyone else. On and off the ice.
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