Gary Bettman has harsh words for Maple Leafs for violating CBA rules

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Brett Thomas Wills
July 31, 2024 (8:13 PM)

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Gary Bettman was critical recently of the Toronto Maple Leafs and their signing of Chris Tanev suggesting they may have violated CBA rules.

It seems that it has stood since the moment he took over that National Hockey League commissioner Gary Bettman has a vendetta against Canadian teams. However, there may not be concrete proof that Bettman may hate the Toronto Maple Leafs the most.

Take for instance the rhetoric regarding Chris Tanev's signing this summer and what it could mean for the Maple Leafs towards the tail end of it. The 34-year-old Tanev and the Maple Leafs agreed on a six-year contract which would take him to the age of 40. As a player who has an injury history, it's plausible that the Maple Leafs would be compelled to place him on LTIR between years four and six to help give them some cap relief in the event they are looking for room to sign someone later on.

By all accounts the Toronto Maple Leafs have done nothing wrong. There have been instances of teams trying to find creative ways to navigate the salary cap since the moment the league instituted it, so why is Bettman upset now, knowing that it's been happening forever?

The Athletics Eric Duhatschek has a take on it:

If the league genuinely wanted to do that [change the rules], they would find ways of plugging the loopholes in the system. This, by the way, is inherently just like the NHL. As soon as a rule is in place, teams try to find creative ways of circumventing it. Ever since the cap system was introduced, teams have found complicated, but legal ways to get around the theoretical cap ceiling.

While it's true the Toronto Maple Leafs may be using loopholes they have exploited to work in their favour, the league can't do anything about it until they consider changing the rules with regards to it. The NHL needs to sit down with the players association and their representatives at the next CBA meeting and put forth their wishes to fix what they think is broken. Until then teams like the Maple Leafs, & the Tampa Bay Lightning and the Vegas Golden Knights to an extent will find creative ways to circumnavigate a system that's broken, but not really.

Source - Hockey Writers
Chris Tanev's Iffy Contract Sparks Debate About NHL LTIR Rules

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Did the Toronto Maple Leafs break CBA rules by signing Chris Tanev?
Yes. But everyone does it	24	24.7 %
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