The NHL announced its salary cap for the 2008-09 season -- $56.7 million maximum and a minimum of $40.7 million.

That's pretty much in line with what the predictions were. Obviously a lot of teams are falling off the maximum pace, but the minimum isn't unreasonable for small-market teams. The new NHL is creeping towards the old NHL as far as team salary differential, but I think that's a good thing. I'm not a big believer in rotating champions. With unlimited spending, you still had to be great managers to win. Spending a lot of money didn't guarantee winning. But spending little on salary guaranteed losing.