The Maple Leafs Have A MASSIVE Problem

What do the Leafs have to do to fix this issue? Do Canadian teams have a shot of having consistent success and or runs in the playoffs?

the tax situation opens up a whole can of worms.

Simple solution for the tax thing, make the salaray cap apply to net salaray and not gross. Therefore a player can make 10M Gross/year in Toronto, but it only count to 5.5M on the cap. that same player would wait 8.5M Gross in lets say florida, and it would also only count to 5.5M on the cap (calculations are not based on accual rates, it''s just for an example) I think this would bring true parity to the league, and it would not hurt Canadian teams, as they tent to be the highest profit earning teams in the league (exclusing ottawa... for now)

The Canadian govt will just waste the tax money anyway

When I read the title I was so happy because I thought it meant they only had one problem

Aren't players taxed based on the location of the individual games? So only 50% of the season is taxed from their home location. Also, places like Toronto offer more opportunities for advertisement deals for players because of the popularity of the sport in Canada. Most commercials I see in the US have either basketball or football stars. I think the situation is much more complex than it seems from a surface level. I think the main issue Canadian teams have had is the management of team building. The Leafs structure is so crazy. They have so much money tied up in only 4 guys. Calgary and Ottawa have been a mess from a front office point of view. Winnipeg is making questionable decisions when it comes to player development. There's a lot of factors at play.

Urgently need a cap that's probably rata'd for tax

Oilers playoff run did not generate $280 million. Those studies always exaggerate economic impact.

Anyone else see the irony in so many players going to the NHL from Ontario and wanting to play in Toronto, yet their current star player is a kid from Arizona of all places?

Take it from someone who's lived in florida their whole life, I can't afford a house yet I make 35 an hour

How is tax rate not factored into the cap, it's criminal.

Lol, the explanation is really simple: Everyone scores more vs Toronto because they suck. Nothing to do with where they grew up at or played.

Yeah, Marner isn't taking a discount. He's going to take 12-12.75 for sure just to barely edge MacKinnon

Its pretty funny that the Leafs cant get their hometown boys to take discounts yet many other teams in Canada can get Americans and Europeans to take discounts. Dubas just didnt manage the cap very well and its made nobody in that Leafs core to want to take a discoint because the next guy isnt

I don't want to get political, then proceeds to praise the Liberal government for keeping grocery store CEO's accountable? Might want to mention how the cost of living has almost tripled in the last 9 years there bud

If anyone deserves tax breaks for work it's the construction work, the meat cutter, the guy or gal the walks up everyday to work 12+ hours a day to work for survival. Sorry but I could care less that a hockey player making 1 million less per year.

The thing with the local economic activity vs taxes argument, is the 280M is great* ** *for the one city **once every 17 years or so (dallas had an 18 year gap between their most recent scf appearances, random chance odds are 1/16)

I think the tax situation gets vastly overblown and is a much smaller factor (or perhaps no factor) in this discussion. The highest tax bracket in California is actually higher than in Ontario (incl. state/provincial and federal income tax.) at over 50%, yet LA has 2 recent championships. San Jose and Anaheim were both 2 of the best teams in the league with absolutely stacked rosters in the 2000s. MA at 46% is almost the same as ON but the Bruins knock out the Leafs every playoffs. New Jersey at nearly 48% eclipses ON yet they have won 3 cups since the last Canadian team to do it, and are putting together another great roster to contend a few years from now. Really when people freak out about tax they are looking at Florida teams, so let's talk about Florida: The Panthers were consistently one of the worst teams in the league for over 25 years until finally having a breakthrough. No one questioned the tax advantages when they were fielding a team that went over 0.600 point % just once in 25 years. Of course they were bound to be good at some point, and if anything this team is exemplified by good team play and coaching, and isn't exactly a superteam with tons of team friendly contracts. Really, everyone is talking about Tampa Bay when they think about Florida teams. This team drafted Stamkos and Hedman in consecutive seasons, then followed that up with Kucherov 58th overall, Vasi 19th overall, then Point 79th overall. That is a drafted superteam right there, and if you look at their contract history, the timing on those contracts were incredible because most were not considered team friendly at the time. Pittsburgh is one of the only good examples of everyone taking team friendly contracts that I can think of, and I am sure taxes helped, but winning a cup before signing new contracts is what really helped. Sid taking the huge paycut was to keep a winning team together, and that set the precedent for the others to follow. If Pittsburgh doesn't beat Detroit that year, we might have been looking at a very different NHL landscape. There are a lot of issues with Canadian teams preventing them from winning a Stanley Cup, and I think blaming taxes is a huge cop out. Even with the current salary situation Toronto didn't need to pay the kind of money they did for their players. But if you sign John Tavares to $11M, which was completely unnecessary, even at the time, can you blame a player like Matthews commanding 11.6? Let's increase the tax burden on normal citizens so that we can sign hockey players for cheaper. Do you trust the Maple Leafs not to squander the extra cap space? As much as I have criticism for the gov't I'd rather put the tax money in their hands than the Leafs.

regarding the taxes- make the team pay the players' tax, not the player themselves. problem solved

As someone who has grown up in Ontario, you are over estimating how many kids grow up as Leafs fans. While there are many, I know about as many Habs fans in SW Ontario as Leafs. That also isn't accounting for Red Wings, Sens fans or fans of other teams who relish in Leafs misery. The Tax issue is also very misleading, as you are putting Canadian Federal Tax, vs State Tax. Yes we Tax more federally then the US, but Provincial Tax is the comparison you want since you still have to pay Federal tax if you have Canadian Citizenship regardless of where you live.