NHL Hockey: Salary Cap Could Rise to $80 million in next four years

After reading this, here, here, and here, I must wonder, what the hell did we have a lockout for? We lost 34 games last season to hear that eventually that the cap will be right back up to 80 million dollars. I don’t think that anyone doubt the source either, Elliotte Freidman is dialed in.

TheScore.com—The NHL's salary cap could go up to $80 million within the next four years, according to Elliotte Friedman of CBC Sports.

Speaking on Sportsnet 590 The Fan's "Prime Time Sports", Friedman said some within the sport expect the cap to rise to that level prior to the 2017-18 NHL season.

The salary cap currently sits at $64.3 million heading into the 2013-14 season, a factor that has caused the NHL free agent market to slow down since the initial rush back in July.

Does this make anyone else upset? I am not real happy after reading this, the beginning of last winter was miserable without the NHL. If the salary cap rises to 80 million over the next four years it will also allow teams to balloon their payrolls again. This basically means that the NHL is going to be right back where they were before the Lockout.