The Colorado Avalanche have had the 6 million unspoken internal salary cap for a while now. It forced Paul Statsny to leave (even though I think he’s overpaid in St. Louis), and it created tension in the Ryan O’Reilly saga.
And for the most part I think it’s responsible and a good idea that GM Joe Sakic is smart enough to have a bar he won’t spend above (unless MacKinnon breaks it soon). However recent Stanley Cup champions have shown that fiscal responsibility isn’t everything.
Many people like that Sakic is building a homegrown core slowly, but as he says he wants to compete now he’s not following the blue print of how other teams have been successful.