EHM The Blue Line

I have the original release of EHM ('04). There isn't a salary cap and starting with the Penguins is tough since the board will only allow a salary of (if I recall correctly) 23M. Once free agency begins, the big name players are expecting salaries far beyond what I'm able to pay (or I can pay them, but I'm way over the amount the team is willing to spend). Asking for additional payroll doesn't help matters, neither does giving the board an ultimatum.

Are there any updates/patches for the '04 version that would require a salary cap? I know that when this game was produced there wasn't a cap in the NHL. I was hoping there'd be a quick fix for this.

You're not going to find anything that adds a salary cap to the '04 version. They didn't incorporate that functionality until later versions of the game. They didn't go back and add that sort of thing for older versions. Honestly, if you like EHM, you should just buy EHM 2007.