Salary cap in historical mode

TurboJ · 02-26-2025, 06:02 AM

I've been happy to see all the progress this series has made since FHM 8 - I'm really liking it so far. Especially the continued effort on the historical mode - the attention to detail with all true rosters is amazing. The player development tracker is also a hugely welcome addition. To think I used to track these manually...

Now I've noticed though, that NHL player salaries relative to salary cap in historical mode seem too low, and I'm not talking about how each game begins - I mean the kind of contracts that teams make as game goes on.

For clarification: ELCs are worth what they should be, and also the very top players in the league are getting roughly era-appropriate contracts. But the middle-of-the-road players get paid too little. This leads to a situation where no team in the league ever has any cap space issues.

In 10 seasons from 2006 to 2017 not once has a team sat close to the salary cap. Every year, they all sit between 50-80 percent of the cap.

I think it's great that the overall finances progress through the years in historical mode, so that the salary cap and team expenses increase as time goes on. But even so, the average salaries still don't seem to ever catch up with the cap itself.

3.5 star players happily signing for 2.5 million per year in 2017 isn't conductive to realistic cap management.

Ahmat · 02-26-2025, 11:32 AM

Noticed same.
In long-term games also top salaries are left behind from reality. Especially from the mid 90s when in reality wage growth was staggering.

02-26-2025, 06:02 AM	#1
TurboJ Minors (Single A) Join Date: Feb 2022 Posts: 56	Salary cap in historical mode I've been happy to see all the progress this series has made since FHM 8 - I'm really liking it so far. Especially the continued effort on the historical mode - the attention to detail with all true rosters is amazing. The player development tracker is also a hugely welcome addition. To think I used to track these manually... Now I've noticed though, that NHL player salaries relative to salary cap in historical mode seem too low, and I'm not talking about how each game begins - I mean the kind of contracts that teams make as game goes on. For clarification: ELCs are worth what they should be, and also the very top players in the league are getting roughly era-appropriate contracts. But the middle-of-the-road players get paid too little. This leads to a situation where no team in the league ever has any cap space issues. In 10 seasons from 2006 to 2017 not once has a team sat close to the salary cap. Every year, they all sit between 50-80 percent of the cap. I think it's great that the overall finances progress through the years in historical mode, so that the salary cap and team expenses increase as time goes on. But even so, the average salaries still don't seem to ever catch up with the cap itself. 3.5 star players happily signing for 2.5 million per year in 2017 isn't conductive to realistic cap management.

02-26-2025, 11:32 AM	#2
Ahmat Minors (Rookie Ball) Join Date: Oct 2024 Posts: 45	Noticed same. In long-term games also top salaries are left behind from reality. Especially from the mid 90s when in reality wage growth was staggering.