TORONTO - A clean sheet of ice awaits each of the National Hockey League’s 32 teams as the puck drops on a new season this week. But as Canadian teams hope to bring home the Stanley Cup for the first time in 33 years, analysists and the players themselves suggest they are not on equal footing with their American rivals. NHL commissioner Gary Bettman has repeatedly downplayed any disadvantage facing teams north of the border. But Canadian-born star Brad Marchand, who signed a six-year deal with the Florida Panthers in June 2025, has publicly said that if “you go to a Canadian team (your contract) has to be 15 per cent more to be the same” as a team in a no-income tax state. A report by the Montreal Economic Institute (MEI), a public policy think tank, found Canada’s higher income tax rates are hurting some of its NHL teams, which have to pay players in U.S. dollars, making it harder to attract and keep top players from both Canada and across the border. “On a yearly salary of (US)$750,000, a player on the Montreal Canadiens pays $364,312 in taxes, an effective tax rate of 48.5 per cent. For a player on the Panthers or the Dallas Stars, for example, this tax bill drops to $234,520, for a rate of only 31.2 per cent,” MEI’s report found. “That’s a difference of more than $129,000 per year on the same salary.” The report also mentioned that the league’s salary cap is based on gross salary rather than net salary, meaning a team from a no-tax state could offer the exact same contract as a Canadian or high-tax U.S.-based team and the player can take home more money. Endorsements, creativity make up for tax loss: analyst TSN’s “That’s Hockey” host Gino Reda told CTV News there are legitimate ways for Canadians teams, as well as U.S. ones based in states with higher income tax, to get around the issues. But that doesn’t change the issues they face with attracting talent. “Is the playing field level? No, it isn’t,” Reda said. “The endorsement dollars for players in a city like Montreal or Toronto are way higher than some of the no-state-tax teams, so there’s ways to overcome it. It just takes a tremendous amount of work and creativity to make it happen.” One more variable is that next season, the NHL’s salary cap is projected to rise from $104 million to $113.5 million, with the league recently suggesting it could be $127.5 million ahead of the 2028-29 season. This could leave small-market Canadian teams, who earn revenue in Canadian dollars, struggling to keep pace and spend to the maximum of the salary cap. U.S.-born talent leaving Canada Another factor putting Canadian NHL teams on an unequal playing field is a handful of U.S.-born stars who have made the push to leave Canadian markets, especially in the wake of the American men’s hockey team winning gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics. Last season, star defenceman Quinn Hughes forced the Vancouver Canucks’ hand and was traded to the Minnesota Wild. In the off-season, longtime Ottawa Senators captain Brady Tkachuk pushed the team to trade him to the Panthers, where he was reunited with his brother Matthew Tkachuk. Three-time Vezina Trophy-winning goalie Connor Hellebuyck demanded a trade from the Winnipeg Jets in the offseason and refused to show up at training camp, triggering an indefinite suspension. “Hellebuyck has a list of teams he’d be willing to be traded to, but his list doesn’t include any of the teams in Canada,” Reda said. “That tells you an awful lot. It’s not a trend just yet, but it’s a concern for Canadian teams to watch their star players go south of the border.” But as Canadian teams hope to bring home the Stanley Cup this season, Reda says not all hope is lost. In 1993, Montreal was the last team to hoist Lord Stanley’s mug, and Reda says “Le Bleu-Blanc-Rouge” might just have the best chance of any of the seven Canadian franchises to win it all this season. “The Canadiens went all the way to the (Eastern) Conference Final last year against the Carolina Hurricanes, who ultimately won the Stanley Cup and they just got better,” Reda said. “Every single aspect of the Canadiens’ rebuild has gone positively.”
