The NHL, and this one's going to be spicy for you. Oh, boy. The NHL are monitoring teams' Income tax situations, but say there are no easy fixes.

Who?

Who could they be referring to? I'm going to give you a Bill Daly quote, and then I'm going to give you a Shane Pinto quote. Oh, okay. It's an issue that comes up from time to time in our room at the board level and the general manager's level, said Bill Daly. There are no easy fixes. It's not like we can just pick from column A and fix the problem overnight. Players make decisions on where they want to play for a variety of reasons. Their bottom line is one of them. But the quality of life and the communities they live in is probably more important. Now, what did we just say about, specifically Edmonton, but any part of Canada? When you're rich, any city is great. Now, here's That's what Shane Pinto had to say. Could be greater. Shane is a man of the people, and he's got a damn good mustache, too. Does he? He said, They have to find a way to tweak it, honestly. If you look at all these free agents, you don't blame them for going down south. It just is what it is, and it's the best for their families and taxes and lifestyle-wise.

But I do think they have to find a way, especially for the Canadian teams. They've got to overpay guys to come to Canada every time, and that messes up the cap. I think they have to find a way to just to even it out. I know it's not easy because it's been like that forever, but I think it would be nice given the even playing field. Now, let me say this, guys.

Do you have the John Tavares quote about this issue?

No, I don't. I don't, but that could be a problem.

He's in my lawyer is currently in court.

Yeah, he's at war with the Canada Revenue Agency.

Let me say this. It's a really easy fix.

That's tougher than Chara.

That's a tough one. You take the percentage of income tax for people in the bracket. In Canada, over 250 grand, and then everybody's in the same bracket, and it's 52% based on province. In Ontario, it's 52% when you get up over 250 grand.

They'll live.

Yes, they'll live. But what you do is you work a percentage out where it's even across the entire thing.

No, because that's not how it works for most of the athletes. They don't have to live in the state where they play. They also file 41 different income taxes for all of the cities they play. You play in LA that day, you're filing California tax. I shouldn't say it's not 41, technically. I'm just talking about how many games are not in their home market. But you're filing taxes for the game you played in LA because you earned that income there. It doesn't work a blanket across the board. You charge teams in Canada this because the guys live different.

It's a pretty easy math. This is easy.

No, I would just leave it.

Why would you leave it? When we're talking about, in some cases, a 15 to 20 % difference. And guys like Alan Walsh will tell you, if you manage your money properly, This should not be a problem. However, that's being challenged in Canada right now with John Tavares. The way Tavares did it is the way that they do it.

Alan says that, and I believe him. Alan's a very smart guy, but the vast majority of players in the NHL disagree with that notion.

Do they disagree or do they not understand?

They probably don't understand it. Both. That's okay. I just think- People disagree with things they don't understand. Right. The idea... So, Jesse, while that's true, 41 games still are at home. Yes. But then how do you calculate a tax break for certain guys because they're going to be living there certain parts of the year and other guys who aren't going to be living there?

Say, okay, you play in a certain market in a state. How does that work across the board?

The majority of your money is going to be made in the whole market.

But it's not a blanket for everybody. It's not a blanket we're all paying the same rate. How can you put a blanket implementation of this salary cap to the team?

Well, I don't think you do a blanket. I think you have to adjust by market. So what's the income tax in whatever territory? And then you go, okay, so this team, if they're signing a guy, for instance, with the cap, everything's in American dollars, right? When Matthew Rinds 13 and then 13.25, that's not Canadian dollars. Canadian dollars, that's 17 million or whatever it is. It is. So they do everything in American dollars. What I would suggest is, and again, not a mathematician, this will shock you, is is you have to look at the income tax at every part. I think Quebec's got the highest. I think Ontario's up there. I think BC is up there. And you have to look at what's the overage a team can spend in real dollars? Because, again, Canadian teams pay in American dollars, so their real dollars are higher than the American dollar figure, what can they overpay in real dollars to even that out? You cannot have a system that you claim is fair. The one thing about parity is if we're going to talk about financial parity, which the NHL claims that's their key factor, we want everybody on the same playing field financially when it comes to the cap.

You have to have an income tax variant in there. Listen, there's probably some of the accountants listening right now going, Adam, you're doing a really bad job by representing us, and here's how I do it. Leave them in the comments. I don't know.

Parents can talk about certain things at the dinner table because the child at the table is not going to have a basis of understanding Yeah, that's me right now.

Well, and I think here's the thing- That's me right now.

The whole thing you're trying to do is even out what the player takes home. If I play in Tampa or if I play in Toronto, I'm going to take home the same thing. My point is that the two guys, We could sit next to each other as players on the Tampa Bay Lightning, but even if we both made $5 million, I can probably take home a different amount than you because of how I live my life in terms of where I live in the offseason, where I live in during the season. I could live in Pennsylvania but play in New York.

But the NHL and the NHLPA are not responsible for that. They are responsible for where they play during the season.

Yes. No, even during the season. I'm just saying paid only during the season. If the goal is for the take home pay to be the same, each player's situation would have to be the same, and their accounting would have to be the same. I don't think that's necessarily the case. I don't think implementing some tax variant is fixing any problem.

Because I agree with you. When you talk about cost of living, it's going to cost more to live in New York than it is in Nashville.Clear.Yeah. Well, you sign in New York, you know that. But if you are objective You're making 5 million, you're making 5 million in Nashville, you're making five million in New York. And yes, it costs more to live in New York, but your take home pay is still less. That is where I think the NHL can do something. They can't do anything about how you spend your money, cost of living. I think this should be a union issue because the union should be going, Hey, some of our guys are getting screwed by income tax here, and they should all be making the money. That the take home should be the same. I do think there's a math calculation in there, and that never has to reach the fans. We don't have to be taking that into account, but there should be a variable of, Here's an equalization so that if you make 5 million in Nashville, your take home is the same in New York.

Are you adjusting with Canadian players who live in Canada and make American dollars?

I I think, absolutely, you are. You're already doing it. In what way? Well, because you're paying them. The money goes into their account in American dollars. Yeah. It does.

I'm saying that money goes further. Then are you scaling that back against the tax system where they... It's like, I don't understand the adjustments we're making. It doesn't feel like it- Well, I haven't formulated the plan. It doesn't sound like it's equalized. It doesn't sound like it's achieving the goal here of making everything equal.

Well, I don't think everything can be. We've talked about that, right? A market like Toronto is always going to have more money than a market like Columbus. That's just the way it is. But I think you can equalize, at very least, if the NHL is going to have what we call the triple hard cap, then it has to be actually fair. If we are going to, and I'm somebody who hates the cap, but if we are going to have it, it should be fair. It should be team X and team Y are completely different cities. But if you play for team X, you will make the same as if you play for team Y, regardless of income tax, your take home pay would be the same. I don't care how they get there. That's a smart person's problem. I'm just guy with podcast who says, Doesn't that seem to make sense? Tell me where that doesn't make sense.

It only makes sense if it puts more money in the pockets of teams and or players.

Well, players, it would. And so teams might not like that. Wouldn't it? Or actually, governments might not like that. I don't know. I mean, maybe the teams don't care because it's just a It's a little extra money. I don't know. Is it a Canadian team issue where it's like, okay, now we got to overpay them even more so that the tax system will accommodate this?

But then year in, year out, tax Taxes change in different places depending on who's in office. So does the cap.

Yeah, it's flat against all the teams.

I feel like that's something the NHL controls. It's like it's 88 million.

Yeah, the standard is the cap goes up unless the world stops, right? The cap goes up no matter what. Tax is ebb and flow.

And what all these teams have?Ice building.Ice building.

Oh, accountants. And what do all these agencies have? We interviewed on Agent Provocateur, one of the guys who's the accountant for octagon Hockey.

Yeah, and what Alan said is that the tax rates don't matter. In the end, that's what he's always said.

We'll see what happens, too, guys. And I agree with you, Jesse, but it's not understood by the players, and therefore, it's It's an obvious disadvantage. It's an obvious disadvantage. Whether or not that's true, the perception is, I can't get my money the same way in the north as I can in the south. And when I look at all the other things, too, like, Oh, by the way, I get to play golf all year round if I live in Florida. That's also great. But I would bet that, and I think this is the same for most people, when you have one career and you got a short window to make as much money as possible, you're going to the place that can make you the most money. Right now, You not only do you have the best weather, you also have the most money in these places, places like Florida, places like Tennessee, formerly Arizona as well.

What happens when a player named Chuck Puck signs an eight-year contract with the Florida Panthers, and he only plays one year there before your uncle is correct, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez becomes the dictator of Florida and declares a 90% tax.

A socialist Republic. Yeah. Dictator of Florida. Then they adjust. That's the whole thing. The cap adjusts. Yeah, but I wish it was this time to say your contract.

They also don't adjust for the Canadian dollar.

Well, they do adjust for the Canadian dollar. They just say you pay an American dollar and whatever the Canadian dollar is at, that's what they pay.

No, but I'm saying your money goes further or your money is less at that moment.

I think the reality, though, is that on both sides of the border, things... Obviously, cost of living. The second you cross the invisible barrier from Buffalo, like upstate New York to Ontario, things go up like 30%. It's not just the dollar conversion. It's straight up. It's more expensive to live here. They can't account for that. They cannot account for that, and I agree on that.

But they can account for taxes.

They can account for taxes.

Absolutely. It's also weird to be just to be advocating for, Oh, make it easier to take the players away from Tampa.

Well, it's not. I mean, you're going to have to- You're going to have to say it a little bit.

They're too good. Make make it better for Toronto. Half the owners in the league are going to say no. What?

The ones who want this very clearly benefit from it and the ones who don't, don't. And to me, it just seems like it's going to be a stalemate..