Out of the past 6 NHL seasons, 5 Stanley Cups have been won by teams in states with no income tax. Almost every free agent or trade target ends up with the Knights, Panthers, or Lightning. Players take less money to sign with these teams, so it must be an unfair advantage, right? What if I told you this was largely a myth! What if I told you that players sign in these cities for many reasons, not just to avoid state income tax? In today’s video, I bust the myth of the no-state-income-tax advantage!
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Editor's Note
I forgot to mention that players on Canadian teams have much more purchasing power due to their salaries being paid in USD. That goes a long way. The average NHL salary of $3 million is $4 million Canadian.
Florida made some good trades and roster pick ups. Bill Zito honestly shouldve gotten gm of the year. Imagine getting Gustav Forsling off of waivers. Eetu Luostarinen played only 8 games for CAR. Buffalo traded away Rodriguez and Reinhart and there was a time when people thought CGY won the TkachuckHuberdeau trade. Add a coach like Paul Maurice and you're g=cooking with gas. Good risk taking, smart trade acquisitions and taking a chance on guys that other teams gave up on. The sales tax is just the cherry on top.
you never hear people whine about the state taxes that are fans of baseball, basketball or football but always do of hockey
The excuses I’ve seen are just sad. The Panthers were awful for years but now that they’re great, suddenly there’s an excuse. 😂
6:50
This could explain why Detroit hasnt won in a decade. The two guys who carjacked Marner fit the description of the largest demographic present in Detroit, and who would want to live around that?
Are you an accountant then?
What I can't stand is the fact that the most of the winningest teams in recent years are based in the southern US states where not many NHL players are born or grew up in. States with warm climate such as Florida, Nevada, Texas, etc. Those fanbases are so lucky. (I know that Quinn & Jack Hughes were born in Florida but they grew up in Boston)
Before harping on state tax rates, it's a good idea to look at the entire tax landscape. Unless they plan to live on the streets, then they are subject to South Florida property tax, which is no joke.
It's important to recognize hater behavior in ourselves, because it takes any impetus off of ourselves to be better by comparison — "No wonder we can't compete when they have advantage X, Y, or Z." Be better and solve your own problems.
You pretty much settled the tax debate. Great argument. That being said, you cheapened your position at the end by blurting out an emotion, speculative, reactionary take on the Ekblad situation. First, you don't know what he put into his body. There's a substantial list of prohibited substances. Blurting out "StErOiDs!" shows you have no knowledge of those types of substances. Nobody in the know calls them "steroids". It's not the 80s anymore. Second, you clearly haven't taken a thoughtful, measured moment to LOOK at Aaron Ekblad. The guy is tall yes, but he's not the epitome of muscle. His upper body looks like Grover from the Muppets. His legs are average at best. What I believe happened is given his history of muscle damages and lower body groin and bone injuries, is that Ekblad discovered that injecting certain hormones and peptides allowed him to recover quicker and fuller. Given the evidence, I don't think he was taking anything to gain an on-ice advantage. He just wanted to stop missing large chunks of games each season. Now, was he wrong and is it cheating? Yes. No arguments there. Is it as bad as using banned substances to perform better and beat your opponent, my opinion is no. I would be disgusted with him for doing that type of thing. It's actually my opinion that all professional athletes should be allowed to use whatever they can in their efforts to recover. They are asked to perform at superhuman levels and so should be allowed to recover better and faster than average Joes. Anyway, my point is I agreed with the NHL's 20 game suspension. He cheated. It's suspension worthy. Missing the playoffs entirely? No. I'm pretty sure he didn't gain any on-ice advantages from his probable use of hormones and peptides to speed injury recovery. I'm also pretty sure the use of these substances is rampant in the NHL. Ekblad was just dumb and got caught.
Nicely done. Long time coming.
Does it help to an extent? Sure. Is it in the top 10 reasons? No, absolutely not.
Looking forward to the Nashville-Seattle Cup finals next year!
The tax nonsense came from TO media and that’s where it’s been perpetually repeated. But they conveniently fail to mention the endorsement deals advantage they have that teams like FL don’t.
TO fans and media are either ignorant or intellectually dishonest. It’s like every single TO hockey media personality keeps this going.
TO media and fans are who’s driving this narrative. They seem to think every single hockey market is financially identical except one specific tax. It’s an emotionally driven argument that doesn’t hold up to even basic scrutiny. Endorsement deals advantage? Property tax rates? How about insurance rates? Or the obvious, they are paid in American dollars and live in Canada. Talk about an advantage. It’s like they don’t think through their complaints on even an elementary level.
If your taxes are too high, stop electing big government socialists.
The state of Florida is the new Hockey mecca. Who would have thought it? People are just mad.
Agree with you on Ekblad and using steroids, Tkachuk however was definitely injured! When he did come back he could barely skate, looked like a shell of himself!
Thank you for busting the state tax myth. However, although the Panthers certainly did take advantage of Tkachuk's LTIR, Ekblad's suspension happened AFTER the trade deadline so didn't help the Panthers at all in terms of cap relief. I suppose it sort of helped as it meant Ekblad (a player with a history of injuries) was much fresher for the playoffs having just sat out 20 games, but not in terms of being able to add additional players.
Great video
It doesn't need to be busted. You would have to not know the Panthers existed 20 years as Bottom Feeders to have that stupid opinion that all of a sudden no state taxes is a superpower.. you would have to ignore that the top four teams in the other three big professional sports leagues didn't all play in states with state tax.. two of those three leagues having Canadian teams
If canadian hockey fans are still crying about how unfair it is that some states have zero income tax, I have 2 solutions. 1) Lower the taxes in canada (hahahahaha, yeah right, in liberal tyrant regime they just voted in), or 2) Move the canadian teams to the states with no income tax. I actually like option 2 better. Kind of like the sound of the Jacksonville Maple Leafs, Orlando Canadiens, Little Rock Senators, Austin Jets, San Antonio Flames, Houston Oilers and Reno Canucks.
Just like Canada and hockey, all of the best football players come from Florida and Texas. And just like Canadian NHL teams, all of the NFL teams in Florida and Texas are poorly ran (even with no state tax). If your front office is incompetent taxes are not going to save you