The rookie cap limits the salary amounts and contract lengths of first-year NHL players aged 24 and under. The cap was worked into the 1994 CBA as a way for owners to have a level of cost certainty for rookie contracts.

The cap hasn't been the panacea NHL owners had hoped for. Players, agents and owners have circumvented it by using lucrative signing bonuses and performance incentives to supplement rookies' maximum base salaries.

The league and team owners have indicated the current system, which they helped hammer out in 1994, isn't working to their liking.

Contract bonuses and incentives have become the starting point for most rookie contracts. Owners commonly point to the Boston Bruins' signing of Joe Thornton in 1997 as the template for the current rookie contract model. Thornton was able to earn an additional $2.3 million in his first season through performance incentives – on top of his guaranteed $925,000 base salary.

These type of incentive-filled deals are now standard for most of the league's top draft picks.

The owners would like to negotiate new, more stringent rookie cap terms to curb escalating rookie salaries. One management official, speaking to the New York Post on the condition of anonymity, said the league would like to put an end to entry-level bonuses.

It appears the players are willing to make concessions on the rookie cap. The NHLPA proposed lowering the cap by an unknown amount during an October 1, 2003, meeting with league officials. The pitch was accompanied by an across-the-board five-per-cent pay cut for all players. It's believed the owners don’t think these cuts are deep enough.