Payroll Room

Last updated

The "Payroll Room" is how much money in a National Hockey League (NHL) team's salary cap is left to acquire players, whether such players are signed as free agents or join the team via a trade or waivers. The term originated in 2005 with the NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which was negotiated following a season-long lockout. The new CBA includes a salary cap (formally titled the "Upper Limit" of the Payroll Range in the agreement). Payroll room is often called cap room in the media.

National Hockey League North American professional ice hockey league

The National Hockey League is a professional ice hockey league in North America, currently comprising 31 teams: 24 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is considered to be the premier professional ice hockey league in the world, and one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The Stanley Cup, the oldest professional sports trophy in North America, is awarded annually to the league playoff champion at the end of each season.

In professional sports, a free agent is a player who is eligible to sign freely with any club or franchise; i.e., not under contract to any specific team. The term is also used in reference to a player who is under contract at present but who is allowed to solicit offers from other teams. In some circumstances, the free agent's options are limited by league rules.

Waivers (NHL)

Waivers is a National Hockey League (NHL) labor management procedure by which an NHL team makes a professional ice hockey player's contract and rights available to all other NHL teams. Other NHL teams "waive" any claim to a player designated for assignment in the American Hockey League (AHL) or designated for release. The process is typically referred to as "being placed on waivers."

A team can increase its cap room if it trades high-salary players to other teams and gets lower-paid players in their place. A team cannot trade its cap room to another team or defer its cap room to subsequent seasons. Other practices once common in the NHL, such as exchanging cash for players or agreeing to pay a portion of a player's remaining salary after trading him, have been explicitly forbidden in the new CBA to try to prevent wealthier teams from evading the restrictions of the cap.

Related Research Articles

In professional sports, a salary cap is an agreement or rule that places a limit on the amount of money that a team can spend on players' salaries. It exists as a per-player limit or a total limit for the team's roster, or both. Several sports leagues have implemented salary caps, using it to keep overall costs down, and also to maintain a competitive balance by restricting richer clubs from entrenching dominance by signing many more top players than their rivals. Salary caps can be a major issue in negotiations between league management and players' unions because they limit players' and teams' ability to negotiate higher salaries even if a team is operating at significant profits, and have been the focal point of several strikes by players and lockouts by owners and administrators.

A luxury tax in professional sports is a surcharge put on the aggregate payroll of a team to the extent to which it exceeds a predetermined guideline level set by the league. The ostensible purpose of this "tax" is to prevent teams in major markets with high incomes from signing almost all of the more talented players and hence destroying the competitive balance necessary for a sport to maintain fan interest. The money derived from the "tax" is either divided among the teams that play in the smaller markets, presumably to allow them to have more revenue to devote toward the contracts of high-quality players, or in the case of Major League Baseball, used by the league for other pre-defined purposes.

The NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is the basic contract between the National Hockey League (NHL) team owners and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA), designed to be arrived at through the typical labour-management negotiations of collective bargaining. The most recent agreement, tentatively reached on January 6, 2013 after a labour dispute which cancelled 510 regular season games of the 2012–13 season, was ratified by the league's Board of Governors on January 9, 2013, as well as by the NHLPA membership three days later on January 12, 2013. The current CBA is a 10-year deal, the longest in NHL history, expiring after the 2021–22 season.

The 2004–05 NHL lockout was a lockout that resulted in the cancellation of what would have been the 88th season of play of the National Hockey League (NHL). It was the first time the Stanley Cup was not awarded since 1919, the first time and only time a major professional sports league in North America canceled a complete season because of a labor dispute, and the second time after the 1994–1995 MLB strike that the postseason of a major professional sports league in North America was canceled. The lockout lasted 10 months and 6 days starting September 16, 2004, the day after the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the NHL and the NHL Players Association (NHLPA) that resolved the 1994–95 lockout expired.

The 1994–95 NHL lockout was a lockout that came after a year of National Hockey League (NHL) hockey that was played without a collective bargaining agreement. The lockout was a subject of dispute as the players sought collective bargaining and owners sought to help franchises that had a weaker market as well as make sure they could cap the rising salaries of players. The lockout caused the 1994–95 season to be shortened to 48 games instead of 84, the shortest season in 53 years.

In the National Basketball Association (NBA), a sign-and-trade deal agreement is a type of transaction allowed by the collective bargaining agreement (CBA) wherein one franchise/team signs an unrestricted free agent player to a new contract, only to then immediately trade him to another team. This is typically done to enable the player to obtain a higher salary and/or greater number of years on their contract than NBA salary cap rules ordinarily allow the destination team, itself, to provide the player.

The NBA salary cap is the limit to the total amount of money that National Basketball Association teams are allowed to pay their players. Like many professional sports leagues, the NBA has a salary cap to control costs and benefit parity, defined by the league's collective bargaining agreement (CBA). This limit is subject to a complex system of rules and exceptions and is calculated as a percentage of the league's revenue from the previous season. Under the CBA ratified in July 2017, the cap will continue to vary in future seasons based on league revenues. For the 2019–20 season, the cap is set at $109.14 million.

The NBA Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a contract between the National Basketball Association and the National Basketball Players Association, the players' union, that dictates the rules of player contracts, trades, revenue distribution, the NBA Draft, and the salary cap, among other things. In June 2005, the NBA's 1999 CBA expired, meaning the League and the players' union had to negotiate a new agreement; in light of the 2004–05 NHL lockout, the two sides quickly came to an agreement, and ratified a new CBA in July 2005. This agreement expired following the 2010–11 season, leading to the 2011 NBA lockout. A new CBA was ratified in December 2011, ending the lockout.

The NHL salary cap is the total amount of money that National Hockey League (NHL) teams are allowed to pay their players. It is a "hard" cap, meaning there are no exemptions.

The 2012–13 NHL season was the 96th season of operation of the National Hockey League (NHL). The regular season began on January 19, 2013 and ended on April 28, 2013, with the playoffs to follow until June.

The 2011 National Football League Player lockout was a work stoppage imposed by the owners of the NFL's 32 teams that lasted from March 12, 2011, to July 25, 2011. When the owners and the NFL players, represented by the National Football League Players Association, could not come to a consensus on a new collective bargaining agreement, the owners locked out the players from team facilities and shut down league operations. The major issues disputed were the salary cap, players' safety and health benefits, revenue sharing and television contracts, transparency of financial information, rookie salaries, season length, and free agency guidelines. During the 18-week, 4-day period, there was no free agency and training camp, and players were restricted from seeing team doctors, entering or working out at team facilities, or communicating with coaches. The end of the lockout coincided with the formation of a new collective bargaining agreement prior to the start of the 2011 regular season.

The 2011 NBA lockout was the fourth lockout in the history of the National Basketball Association (NBA). The owners began the work stoppage upon expiration of the 2005 collective bargaining agreement (CBA). The 161-day lockout began on July 1, 2011 and ended on December 8, 2011. It delayed the start of the 2011–12 regular season from November 1 to December 25, and it reduced the regular season from 82 to 66 games. The previous lockout in 1998–99 had shortened the season to 50 games. During the lockout, teams could not trade, sign or contact players. Also, players could not access NBA team facilities, trainers, or staffs.

The following is a list of all team-to-team transactions that have occurred in the National Hockey League during the lockout shortened 2012–13 NHL season. It lists what team each player has been officially released by, traded to, signed by, or claimed by, and for which player(s) or draft pick(s), if applicable. Players who have retired are also listed.

The 2012–13 NHL lockout was a labor dispute between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA) that began at 11:59 pm EDT on September 15, 2012. A tentative deal on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) was reached on January 6, 2013, with its ratification and signing of a memorandum of understanding on the agreement completed by January 12, 2013, 119 days after the expiry of the previous CBA.

The following is a list of all team-to-team transactions that have occurred in the National Hockey League during the 2013–14 NHL season. It lists what team each player has been traded to, signed by, or claimed by, and for which player(s) or draft pick(s), if applicable. Players who have retired are also listed.

The NFL Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) is a labor agreement which reflects the results of collective bargaining negotiations between the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA) and National Football League (NFL) team owners. The labor agreement classifies distribution of league revenues, sets health and safety standards and establishes benefits, including pensions and medical benefits, for all players in the NFL. The first collective bargaining agreement was reached in 1968 after player members of the NFLPA voted to go on strike to increase salaries, pensions and benefits for all players in the league. Later negotiations of the collective bargaining agreement called for injury grievances, a guaranteed percentage of revenues for players, an expansion of free agency and other issues impacting the business of the NFL. The NFLPA and team owners have negotiated seven different agreements since 1968.

Major League Baseball has a luxury tax, called the “competitive balance tax”, in place of a salary cap in order to level the spending an individual team can spend on their roster. In many other professional sports leagues in North America there is a salary cap that limits what each team can spend on their players. If a league lacks a salary cap or a luxury tax, any team can spend all the money they can afford on players. This means teams with more limited financial resources cannot afford the top talent, putting them at a competitive disadvantage against rich teams.