The Window of Opportunity Closes Some

Today word leaked out the official salary cap is going up over $50 million for the coming season. What this means is that we are going to see some teams like the Thrashers not be able to spend the maximum cap amount and thus the team will be at a competitive disadvantage in terms of constructing a roster.

The first two years after the lockout dramatically leveled the playing field and greatly reduced the advantage once held by high revenue clubs like Detroit, Toronto and NY Rangers. Theat once level playing field is about to become less so in future seasons.

Looking back Thrasher fans will see that a great opportunity was missed during the 2005-06 and 2006-07 seasons. During those teams ATL spent just as much on their payroll as did Detroit, Toronto and the Rangers. The team spent right up to the cap each year but at the end of the day all they have show for it is missing the playoffs one year and being swept out of the first round in the other year. Not much of a return sad to say.

Now this doesn't mean that the Thrashers will never win a Stanley Cup it just means that it will be more difficult going forward. The team will have to beat out other clubs that can afford to spend more money on their roster. It certainly can be done as the Tampa Lightning recently demonstrated with their Cup win.