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The issue of no tax states has been a hot topic in and around the NHL over the past several years.
With the success of teams like the Florida Panthers, Tampa Bay Lightning and Vegas Golden Knights, who all play in states with no income tax, it begs the question of whether they hold an unfair advantage.
As it stands, five of the past six Stanley Cup winners have come from no tax states.
That’s probably why it’s become so much more of an issue recently.
Prior to the Lightning winning the Cup in 2020, a no tax state team hadn’t won a championship since…the Lightning, all the way back in 2004.
Before that, the only no tax state team to win a Stanley Cup was the Dallas Stars in 1999.
So why is it only now becoming such a big issue?
Before the recent run of no tax state Stanley Cups, those teams were still finding success, if not winning titles.
Tampa Bay, Nashville and Vegas lost in three of the four Stanley Cup Finals from 2015 to 2018.
Does the no tax issue help teams in those states when it comes to signing free agents? Of course it does.
“It's absolutely a benefit,” said Panthers forward Brad Marchand. “I mean, for instance, if you go to a Canadian team, it needs to be 15% more on a contract to be the same as what it is here (in Florida). Does it matter for every player? No. But if you're now dealing with the contracts that you're looking at, it's absolutely going to take place, or it's going to be something that you look at.”
Marchand, who turned 37 back in May, signed a six-year, $31.5 million contract with Florida earlier this summer.
It’s a deal he couldn’t have gotten many other places.
But as Brad Marchand explained, there is more to committing to a no tax state team than just the dollars and cents.
“It wasn't probably as big of a factor back when some teams weren't as competitive or weren’t run as well – because that is the main thing, you care about the hockey, you care about the organization – so you're not going to walk into a non-tax state if the team's not run well, or if they're a bad team, but that's just not the case anymore. These teams, the non-tax state teams, are some of the best run teams in the league, so they’re teams you want to play for, just because of the ownership and the management and how they approach the day-to-day game, you know, you want to be part of that, and they're all contending teams now.”
Indeed, the Panthers have Bill Zito, Tampa has Julien BriseBois, Dallas has Jim Nill, Kelly McCrimmon has done an excellent job in Vegas and Nashville has Barry Trotz running the show.
It always starts at the top.
Once the team is set up to succeed, all of the other elements that come with living in Florida or Vegas or Nashville only add fuel to the fire.
Now it’s up to those teams to sustain the success they’re currently finding, and exploit the financial advantage that their home states afford them.
“So when you look at the teams that you want to play for, they're great organizations now, they're great contending teams, and they're the best places to live,” said Marchand. “And then adding non tax on top of it, it's an opportunity for teams. They can pay some of the best players in the game a couple million dollars less, and they still net more money than, you know, the highest tax state teams, and they're able to spread that around and bring more players. So you can't say it's not a benefit. It absolutely is, but it's not on every contract, it's not for every player. But now, with the way that, again, they're all content teams, guys are just willing to take less to come here and be part of it and have a great lifestyle.”
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Photo caption: Jun 22, 2025; Fort Lauderdale, Florida, UNITED STATES; Florida Panthers center Brad Marchand (63) celebrates with the Stanley Cup during the Stanley Cup championship parade and rally. (Sam Navarro-Imagn Images)