How can a team be $17 million over cap?
I see that Tampa Bay is $17 million over the salary cap, is there a penalty for being over the cap? If there’s not a penalty then why do teams even follow the cap? It does not look like the salary numbers will drop much if no moves are made so they will be in a similar situation next year.
Answer
Teams must always be in compliance with the salary cap. Part of the salary cap rules include Long Term Injured Reserve (LTIR), which allows a team to exceed the cap by a certain amount if they have players that are injured long-term.
Here is more information on LTIR: https://puckpedia.com/salary-cap/LTIR.
Tampa had several players on LTIR which allowed them to exceed the $81.5M Cap, but they were always in compliance with the Cap. Since they were in compliance, there is no penalty. However, one consequence of using LTIR and being over the $81.5M cap is that any performance bonuses earned will be a carryover bonus overage and incur a cap charge in the following year. Tampa Bay incurred that so will have a resulting cap charge in 21-22 for the bonuses earned in 20-21.
As for next season, they're permitted to exceed the cap by 10% until the start of the next season. Therefore, they will either need to make roster moves to be under $81.5M by the start of the next season, and/or they will need players that are injured long-term and placed on LTIR.
