I was referring to the period from the last league game to the time of the first league game. My reasoning is that a lot of teams that aren't in the playoffs or relegation series fire their staff so that they don't have to pay the salaries for the numerous weeks where they will not receive much income. And also, the draft hasn't been released yet, and so a lot of people would be waiting to see what they get before rehiring or replacing their staff.
So logically, teams that aren't in the playoffs or relegation series aren't going to buy a new staff member whilst playoffs are occuring as they would have to pay the salary for a long time without really getting full use out of him and while not receiving income from home games. And on the contrary, teams that are in the playoffs and relegation series are generally trying to buy superstars the week leading up to playoffs and so spend their money on players to try and not relegate or to promote and don't worry too much about staff. So they would be cheap here.