The Carolina Hurricanes‘ use of deferred salary on a pair of new deals signed this summer may not become the norm in the NHL.
According to Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly, while the NHL approved the new contracts for Jaccob Slavin and Seth Jarvis, the league has concerns with teams using deferred salary and the issue could be addressed in the next CBA negotiation.
“There are some things about the cap system that cause some interpretation to have to happen, which we shared with Carolina in advance. We shared with the union in advance as to how we were interpreting the provisions,” Daly said in an interview with Michael Russo of The Athletic. “I’m not saying that I think deferred comp is the greatest mechanism in a system like we have and maybe in the future might be addressed in collective bargaining. But we’re midterm now, so we kind of are where we are.”
Slavin signed an eight-year, $51.17-million contract that runs from 2025-2033. However, according to PuckPedia, a $4.55 million signing bonus owed to Slavin on July 1, 2031, will instead be paid on the day after the contract expires, July 1, 2033. As a result, Slavin’s salary cap hit will reduce from $6.461 million down to $6.396 million for the duration of the contract.
Jarvis signed an eight-year, $63.2-million contract that begins this season and ends in 2032. This contract will save the Hurricanes $400,000 a season against the salary cap because Jarvis has agreed to defer money each year. That deferral will be paid as a lump sum of $15.67 million upon completion of the deal, according to PuckPedia.
“It helped me, but also helped the team, and that’s what we were looking for — something to help build around not just me but the team around here to have more space to bring in other guys,” Jarvis said of his unique contract structure.
Daly says the original deferred money clause in the CBA dates back to the pre-salary cap era and will “probably need adjustment on some basis going forward.”
When asked point blank by Russo if deferring salary could in certain cases be considered cap circumvention, Daly said “It can be, sure.”
“That’s a long-term big-picture fear, I suppose,” Daly added. “It’s less a micro-dynamic fear particularly because, as I said, we’ve had to make interpretations which I think will continue to be binding until we renegotiate over it.”
The NHL’s current CBA with the NHLPA runs through the 2025-26 season.
