Bettman and the NHL Reportedly Unhappy With Recent $18 Million Deal: Changes Could Be Coming to the CBA
The Anaheim Ducks inked Frank Vatrano to a deal with 10 years of deferred money, and now the NHL are reportedly unahappy and could look to make a huge change.
This past week, the Anaheim Ducks announced a contract extension for veteran forward Frank Vatrano, who has come into his own as a Duck and wants to remain with the team and lead their young core moving forward.
The deal wasn't a normal three-year extension however, as the Ducks and Vatrano agreed to defer $9 million of the deal, with Vatrano to be paid $900,000 a year from 2035, at which point he'll be living outside of California and their taxes, a way for teams in Cali to get around that with deals.
While it's completely legal under the current CBA, the league may not be happy with it however, as Elliotte Friedman has now revealed that Gary Bettman and the NHL could look to make changes to this rule in the upcoming CBA.
This type of deal isn't one seen very often in the NHL, and given the advantage that tax-free states have over the others (five of the last six Stanley Cup Champions come from states without state tax), this should be a good way to get around that.
It's unclear why exactly the league are looking to get rid of deferred money deals, as owners are the ones that have to foot the bill for a long time to come, but as of right now they simply aren't happy with the way this deal was put together, and with the CBA ending after next season, expect this to be a very hot-button issue.
| G | A | PTS | ||
| Jesper Boqvist | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Pierre-Luc Dubois | 2 | - | 2 | |
| Connor Bedard | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| Matthew Tkachuk | - | 2 | 2 | |
| Logan Cooley | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Conor Garland | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Eetu Luostarinen | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Ilya Mikheyev | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Frank Nazar | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Juuso Parssinen | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Sam Reinhart | 1 | - | 1 | |
| Aleksander Barkov | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Tyler Bertuzzi | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Colton Dach | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Gustav Forsling | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Quinn Hughes | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Seth Jones | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Clayton Keller | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Anton Lundell | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Connor McMichael | - | 1 | 1 | |
| Complete stats | ||||
| STANDINGS 2024-2025 | ||||||
TOP 10 | GP | W | L | OL | PTS | |
Golden Knights | 40 | 28 | 9 | 3 | 59 | |
Capitals | 41 | 27 | 10 | 4 | 58 | |
Jets | 42 | 28 | 12 | 2 | 58 | |
Wild | 41 | 26 | 11 | 4 | 56 | |
Maple Leafs | 42 | 27 | 13 | 2 | 56 | |
Oilers | 40 | 25 | 12 | 3 | 53 | |
Devils | 43 | 25 | 15 | 3 | 53 | |
Panthers | 42 | 25 | 15 | 2 | 52 | |
Kings | 38 | 23 | 10 | 5 | 51 | |
Stars | 39 | 25 | 13 | 1 | 51 | |
| Conference | Cumulative | ||||||