Players being taxed differently depending on where they play has always been a thing in the NHL, but in recent years, it has become a more prominent issue as teams with the lowest tax rates continue to win the Stanley Cup. This includes the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning, and Vegas Golden Knights with the Dallas Stars making it to three consecutive conference finals.
While being a lower tax state or place to play isn't everything all the time, when a team with this advantage is good, players are more likely to choose to sign there for a bit cheaper as they'll take home more money and have a chance to win or re-sign for what we call team-friendly deals.
This is not an advantage in Canada, New York, or California, but for the Chicago Blackhawks in Chicago, they have the 11th lowest tax rate in the NHL (41.52%). This doesn't have much of an impact right now since the Blackhawks can already pay players more with so much cap space, but when it's time to go big and sign important players, they should get a bit of a discount.
This doesn't just include UFAs the Blackhawks hope to sign to improve, but also the RFAs like Connor Bedard and Frank Nazar who will be signing long-term deals soon enough.
The Blackhawks aren't at the same level as those powerhouse teams who have been able to keep the majority of their high-end players and add more year after year to stay highly competitive, but don't think players and agents don't know exactly how much they'll take home playing for certain teams.
Unless the league finally makes a change to even the playing field for all teams, the Blackhawks will start to take advantage of this one-up on many other teams soon.
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