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Canes defenseman appears to put an asterisk on the Bolts' series win due to cap disparity

Published June 10, 2021 at 11:24
BY MIKE ARMENTI
The Tampa Bay Lightning punched their ticket to the semifinals with a 4-1 series win over the Carolina Hurricanes on Tuesday, leaving the Canes in some shock and dismay after a really strong season, with many pinning them as a favourite to take a run at the Stanley Cup this year.

Despite their efforts, the Canes came up short against a clearly superior defending Stanley Cup Champion Bolts team, albeit with a near-$20M cap differential between the two clubs.

Much has been made of Tampa's questionable salary cap overage, with many viewing the Bolts' handling of the Nikita Kucherov situation as cap circumvention, but according to the CBA, they did not actually break any rules - though I don't think you can argue that they did walk the line.

On Thursday, during the Hurricanes' season-ending media scrum, defenseman Dougie Hamilton brought up the disparity between the two teams' salary figures, but appeared to refrain from accusing the Bolts of any wrongdoing. It did, however, seem like Hamilton was politely placing a bit of an asterisk next to the Bolts' series win.

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"We had a great season," Hamilton began. "We lost to a team that's $18M over the cap or whatever they are. They have an unbelievable goalie. I feel like we played them pretty close," he said.

Hamilton was also complimentary of the Lightning during the media session, acknowledging how talented of a group the Bolts are, but also wondered what the Canes might have been able to do under similar circumstances and with an extra $20M worth of talent on their roster.

Hamilton's current contract is set to expire at the end of July, leading to much speculation as to whether or not he'll be back in Carolina next season. As of this moment, Hamilton has confirmed that there is nothing to report in terms of progress on any sort of an extension.


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