What Can The NHL Do About State Income Tax Advantages? Jaccob Slavin [https://thehockeynews.com/.image/c_fit,h_600,w_600/MjA5NjAwMzA5NjI0ODQxMzc2/usatsi_23233919.jpg] Jaccob Slavin Time to get your calculator out. If you thought the NHL salary cap was already confusing — what with signing and performance bonuses, long-term injury reserve, buyouts and retained salary, among other things — then you’re probably not going to like the fact that the Carolina Hurricanes have figured out a new way to exploit the CBA. On July 1, the Hurricanes signed Jaccob Slavin to an eight-year extension worth $51.17 million. Normally, the cap hit on that deal would have been $6.461 million. But because Slavin chose to defer one of his signing bonuses to the day after the contract technically expires, the average annual value actually decreases to $6.396 million. About two months later, Carolina relied on that same loophole when signing Seth Jarvis to an eight-year extension worth $63.2 million. By deferring one of his signing bonuses to the day after his contract expires, the Hurricanes were able to decrease Jarvis’ cap hit from $7.9 million to $7.5 million. “I started that trend,” Slavin, a smile spread across his face, said at the NHL/NHLPA Player Media Tour two weeks ago. “Jarvy got a little bit more than I did, but that’s ok.” While Slavin blamed — or, rather, praised — analytics guru-turned-GM Eric Tulsky for the outside-the-box thinking (“He’s a wizard with that kind of stuff,” said Slavin), not everyone was happy that the Hurricanes found a way to sign two cornerstone players, while also saving a combined $3.72-million over eight seasons. As Don Cherry might have once said: what a bunch of (cap-circumventing) jerks! “I’m not saying that I think deferred comp is the greatest mechanism in a system like we have,” NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly said at the tour when asked if there was anything wrong with what Carolina has done. “It throws out of whack some of the other checks and balances that we have in the CBA, which forces interpretations in terms of how we allow it and what’s permissible and what’s not permissible. And so, I just think it was the original deferred comp rules were developed in a non-cap world as opposed to a cap world. So they were kind of inherited and they probably need adjustment on some basis going forward.” When asked if deferred comp could be construed as cap circumvention, Daly said: "That’s a long-term, big picture fear, I suppose." For now, give the Hurricanes credit. Not only did they re-sign two franchise cornerstones, but they did so while pocketing extra cash for reinforcements. “It was easy,” Slavin said of signing long-term with the Hurricanes. “We knew we wanted to get something done this summer and it made sense for both sides. So it wasn’t difficult at all. It helps makes the team better, so I was happy to do it.” Despite the deferred payment, Carolina ended up losing more than it gained last summer. In what was a difficult off-season for Slavin and the tight-knit Hurricanes, the team bid goodbye to longtime defensemen Brett Pesce and Brady Skjei, who signed elsewhere as free agents. Slavin said the loss of Pesce, who he broke into the NHL alongside in 2015-16 and spent nine years primarily as defense partners, was particularly hard to see. “I’ve played my whole career with Brett,” said Slavin. “We started rookie camp together, we started training camp together, we were both the last cuts the first year and got sent down to Charlotte, he gets called up, I get called up two weeks later and then we both are in the NHL from that point on. And so seeing him go was tough. And then Brady Skjei’s been there for the past five years and these are all guys that you become really good friends with, so seeing them go is never fun. So there’s definitely a lot of changeover this year.” What hurt the most wasn’t necessarily the change. But rather that the group, which twice reached the conference final in the past six years, never got to win together. “I think the expectations with our group last year was obviously to win,” said Slavin. “We had such a good team on paper, on the ice, everything. We had all the components needed to have a championship team, so I guess you could say letting that fall through the fingertips was sad. But then at the same point, our culture there is so strong that these new guys coming in, we still have an amazing core group of guys and we’re still going to be a really good hockey team.” This year, with most of the core still left intact, the expectations haven’t changed. Slavin believes Carolina still has the talent capable of winning a championship. And he’s got eight — well, technically nine — years to try and make it happen. “To be able to wear the same jersey for what seemed to be my whole career and what I hope to be my whole career is just an incredible feeling,” he said. “And my family’s happy because they don’t have to get any other jerseys. They just get to stay with Carolina Black and Red. They don’t have to worry about switching.”
