No State Income Tax is the NHL's New LTIR
No State Income Tax is not as Big of an Advantage as Many Think It Is
The Florida Panthers are heading back to the Stanley Cup Final for the third consecutive season. However, the excuses are coming out of the woodwork regarding how they built their team. And it is solely because one person on TV said that the reason the Panthers are back in the final is that Florida has no state income tax.
But this is similar to when fans complained that the Tampa Bay Lightning went to the Stanley Cup Final three years ago. However, instead of using the no state income tax, they said the Lightning had an advantage because of using long-term injured reserve (LTIR) to their advantage.
However, Lightning GM Julien BriseBois did not break any rules because it was stipulated in the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), which was agreed upon between the NHL and the NHL Players' Association (NHLPA). But the issue was that every other team in the league could use that to their advantage, but chose not to.
Instead, they made excuses. These cries of an unfair advantage with LTIR were loud when the Vegas Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup, when Mark Stone returned in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, saying that’s the reason these teams won would do a disservice to the general manager, as well as to their staff, for understanding the CBA and finding players that fit their teams.
Similarly, using the no-state income tax as the sole reason why the Florida Panthers are back in the Stanley Cup would do a disservice to their general manager, Bill Zito, who is up for the Jim Gregory Award as General Manager of the Year.
Zito built a strong team and a culture of winning with the Florida Panthers, which had been lacking for many years. Before their current streak of making the playoffs in six straight seasons, the Panthers had only made the playoffs twice since the year 2000. They achieved this once in 2012, when they lost to the New Jersey Devils in seven games, and again in 2016, when they lost to the New York Islanders in six games.
So, if the no-state income tax was such an advantage, why were the Panthers not that competitive from the 1996-97 season through the 2019-20 season? Because if it were such an advantage, the best players would have signed with the Panthers in free agency.
Not to mention, if the Panthers were successful based on no state income tax, Florida would not have drafted Jonathan Huberdeau 3rd overall in 2011, Aleksander Barkov 2nd overall in 2013, Aaron Ekblad 1st overall in 2014, Spencer Knight 13th overall in 2019, and Anton Lundell 12th overall in 2020.
The Panthers have an excellent team at drafting and developing. You have to give credit to their professional and amateur scouts, along with the rest of the staff who have studied these players all season.
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Did the tax situation make Gustav Forsling fall to the Panthers when he was on the waiver wire? What about when Matthew Tkachuk forced his way out of Calgary as Florida acquired him in a trade for Huberdeau? That was a move by Bill Zito as he felt his team needed a different edge to win in the playoffs after being swept by the Lightning during the 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs.
In addition to those moves, the tax situation didn’t force Buffalo Sabres GM Kevyn Adams to give Sam Reinhart for a first-round pick. It also didn’t force Brad Treliving, formerly the Flames' GM, to trade Sam Bennett to Florida for Emil Heineman and a 2nd-round pick. Did the absence of state income tax force Chicago to trade Brandon Montour to Florida? Montour left via free agency for Seattle.
How bout the great move by Zito at this year’s trade when the Panthers acquired Seth Jones from the Chicago Blackhawks and then Brad Marchand from Boston for a conditional pick. Zito built a winning culture, and players believe they have a chance to sustain success in Florida.
At the time Zito came in, the only big-name player there was Sergei Bobrovsky, and his contract before the current run was not the best, at $10 million per season. Over the years, he acquired players such as Carter Verhaeghe (Mr. Playoff), Oliver Ekman-Larsson (now in Toronto), Dmitry Kulikov, Niko Mikkola, Evan Rodrigues, Eetu Luostarinen, and others.
While they extended Sam Reinhart and Verhaeghe, the team has changed over the years, but the culture remains unchanged. Free agents know they have a chance to win with the Panthers, Lightning, Dallas Stars, and Nashville Predators. That’s why they go there.
If no-state income tax were such an advantage, then everyone would be flocking to Seattle to play for the Kraken. And what about Nashville? The Predators should have been better this past season, but failed to make the playoffs.
And under former GM David Poile, he often heard about players not wanting to go to Nashville because the team had a reputation for rebuilding and not achieving success. If no-state income tax were that much of an advantage, Nashville should have won multiple Stanley Cups by now.
In the period before a team from Florida made an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final six straight years, the Lightning (2020-22) and now the Panthers (2023-25) faced off. Meanwhile, the Detroit Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins faced off in back-to-back Stanley Cup Finals in 2008-2009. Michigan and Pennsylvania have high state income taxes.
The Penguins won back-to-back Stanley Cup Championships in 2016-17. The Chicago Blackhawks won three Stanley Cups in five years (2010, 2013, 2015). Additionally, Illinois has a relatively high state income tax. The Los Angeles Kings, Stanley Cup Champions (2012, 2014), are based in California, which has a high state income tax.
How about the success of the Boston Bruins? They had no advantage playing in Massachusetts. And the list goes on of successful teams in the years leading up to the success of the Florida Panthers and Tampa Bay Lightning.
Winning matters more than saving money. It’s only 0.001 percent of a reason a player goes to these teams. If a player believes he can win with a particular team, whether that'll be Dallas, Vegas, Nashville, Florida, Tampa Bay, or Seattle, that is up to them.
However, to claim that the Florida Panthers have a competitive advantage due to no state income tax and that this is the reason they are back in the Stanley Cup Final is a cop-out and a lazy argument.
No-state income tax is the new LTIR argument. In a few years, when the next big thing (or new team) comes along, there will be a new excuse. How about giving credit to the team for building a team that encourages winning instead of losing?
That is why teams are successful, not because of a factor beyond their control.
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