Gary Bettman punishes six NHL teams with salary cap penalties

In an unsurprising turn of events, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman is making more enemies after it was reported that he has punished several teams with salary cap overage penalties.

NHL Insider Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff recently reported that Gary Bettman is hitting several teams with overage penalties for the upcoming season. This includes at least six teams who have accrued more than $1 million in overage, making this a record high.





There are currently eleven teams on the list, with the Edmonton Oilers facing the heftiest fine. Other teams include the Dallas Stars and Washington Capitals.



Given the intentionality of carrying overage penalties, fans have become divided on their team's choices in the regular season. Other fans have argued on whether or not this strategy constitutes cheating.




With most of the teams on the list focusing on the playoffs, it is hard to know how they plan to manage this decreased cap space. Hopefully whatever decisions they made this season will not hurt them in the next.