If there's one thing the NHL league office is obsessed with, it's competitive balance. Parity rules in hockey, and the league often emphasizes that it treats its 32 teams equally. That's fostered by a hard salary cap. There's a fixed amount teams can spend on players -- and as the league recovers from revenues lost in the pandemic, that salary cap remains largely stagnant, jumping to $82.5 million this season after three straight seasons of $81.5 million.
However there's an unspoken secret in the NHL: There's no salary cap on hockey operations. And behind the scenes, there's an arms race between teams, navigating where to spend extra cash -- and how much of it needs to be spent -- to find a competitive advantage.