GLENDALE, ARIZ.—This might sap some of the fun out of Ron Wilson’s landmark 600th win.

There were whispers around the NHL that the Maple Leafs might have violated the league’s salary cap when the head coach posted an undisclosed amount of cash in the locker room prior to Toronto’s win over San Jose as an extra incentive for his team to beat the Sharks.

It was Wilson’s 600th career win – making him the seventh coach to reach that plateau – and came against the team that fired him after an unsuccessful playoff run in 2008.

It’s a hockey tradition for players traded from one team to post cash – like a bounty – for the player on his new team to score the winning goal when the two teams meet. Just a little bit of jocularity among teammates, really.

Wilson was just partaking in that ritual, with the players saying the money would go to a good team dinner. But it was unclear whether the gift was a violation of the collective bargaining agreement, something the league frowns upon.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly was believed to be travelling and unable to return emails from the Star. The Leafs said they have not heard from the league on the matter.

“If it is a violation, we will remedy it with the league,” said GM Brian Burke. “We’ll take the money back, do whatever the league tells us to do. We have not heard anything from the National Hockey League.”

It certainly does sound like a circumvention under Article 26, Section G of the CBA:

“Neither a Club nor a Club Actor may pay or provide a Player anything of value, except as provided in his SPC (standard players contract) . . . Upon a finding of this circumvention . . . the player shall forfeit to the League such prohibited payment or other thing of value.”

The league has cracked down on instances of salary cap circumvention, fining the New Jersey Devils $3 million and forcing the club to forfeit one first-round draft pick over the next four years (the Devils’ choice of which year) over Ilya Kovalchuk’s illegal $102 million, 17-year contract.

The Leafs have even lost a fourth-round draft pick in 2009 and were fined $500,000 for illegally signing defenceman Jonas Frogren in 2008. Frogren used his signing bonus to buy himself out of his contract in Sweden.