Luxury tax will never work in a Sport like the NHL, because the only teams that would get hit by them, are Toronto, Detroit, Dallas, New Jersey, Colorado and St. Louis. It doesn't even work in baseball, so how can a failed system work in a struggling league?
Salary Cap is needed and it should be at $35 million, and yes it would become a parity, but nothing like the NFL. Most of the teams in the NHL, barely break 40 million, let alone 35, and yet still competitive, and they don't have superstar players on everyline.
The sad thing is that, the NHL does not market the players, to grab the attention. They say "The fastest game in sport," or some stupid cliche, meanwhile they should market players like St. Louis, Doan, Heatley, Hejduk, Brodeur, Theodore, Luongo, etc...
The average american only knows players like Greztky, Lemeiux, Yzerman, Modano, Roenick, Bure, Jagr, and thats about it.