Kucherov Has Message for Dougie Hamilton After Salary Cap Comments

When Carolina Hurricanes’ defenseman Dougie Hamilton said, “We had a great season and lost to a team that’s $18 million over the cap or whatever they are,” it caught a lot of attention. He later tried to explain, “I’m wasn’t knocking the rules or anything. You realize how many weapons they have. If you think about how many more players you could add with that money, you realize how much deeper you’d be.” By then it was too late, the debate had already begun.

Related: Hamilton Upset Hurricanes Lost to Lightning Team $18M Over Salary Cap

This isn’t a new debate. There has been a lot of chatter over the way the CBA has the rules set up that allow players to return from injury and join their respective rosters in the playoffs without their salary counting against the team’s cap. The situation Hamilton was referring to is Nikita Kucherov. Kucherov returned after missing the entire regular season thanks to hip surgery. The Lightning put him on LTIR and with that money, acquired defenseman David Savard from the Columbus Blue Jackets. None of Kucherov’s current annual salary of $9.5 million counts against the Lightning’s cap.

The Tampa Bay Lightning forward was asked about Hamilton’s comments and he didn’t shy away from responding. Seemingly bothered that anyone would look at him and suggest he intentionally tried to circumvent the salary cap, Kucherov said, “I didn’t make the rules with the cap, it’s not me. I didn’t do anything on purpose. I had to do the surgery. I had to go through the whole five months of rehabilitation and when the time came and I was ready to play.” I was playing. He went on to talk about how difficult rehab was.

No One Is Blaming Kucherov

The thing Kucherov seems to not understand in his comments is that few people, if any, are actually blaming him. While he might have been aware of how things work. no one thinks he intentionally sat out until the very first game of the postseason just to get on the ice when his money situation allowed him to do so. Honestly, if he could have played sooner, most fans probably believe he would have liked to.

No, people are blaming the Lightning organization.

When asked by @SWhyno about Dougie Hamilton’s comments on @TBLightning being $18 million over the cap, this is what Nikita Kucherov said pic.twitter.com/wa48cDsybo

— Joe Smith (@JoeSmithTB) June 11, 2021

The debate here is that teams see these loopholes in the CBA and then take every opportunity to use the rules to their advantage. The Toronto Maple Leafs tried it to some degree when they moved pieces around and added Nick Foligno. It didn’t work. In the Lightning’s case, Kucherov is their leading scorer in the playoffs and they are one of the favorites to win the Stanley Cup because of him. The coincidence that the Lightning just so happened to have access to him for the first game of the postseason is a bit too hard a pill for some to swallow.

The NHL said they looked into the matter and found nothing wrong. Again, most fans aren’t buying it.

Hamilton is Saying What Most Fans Are Thinking

The idea of salary caps and LTIR is likely something that will be addressed in GM meetings this summer. Will it change? Who knows. If the Lightning win the Stanley Cup, there will certainly be pressure from all sides to take a closer look at this.

The real issue is whether or not the teams want the rule changed. We have to assume that every single franchise would do exact the same thing the Lightning have allegedly done given the opportunity. It just sucks for the teams that will lose to Tampa because of it and they’ll be bitter about the result, even if most don’t say anything.

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