Seattle has a requirement to be at least 60% of this year’s salary cap, so exposing players with higher cap hits, allows them to reach the floor safely. Also if we have all a group of exposed players that are all bad but don’t at least expose the ones with bad contracts, then we will be guaranteed to get stuck with them, versus Seattle possibly taking one off of our hands to meet their minimum salary requirement. So while we aren’t “obliged” to do it, we absolutely should be putting all of our unwanted contracts out there to protect our younger assets.
They're going to hit the floor pretty easily, through TBL. Tampa is going to expose a high value contract that is actually worth taking. They could also waive TJ again, and Seattle would claim him if they did. On top of that, they could draft a backup level goalie and then trade for MAF straight up. LV would do that trade for cap space.
With so many teams up against the cap, they have all kinds of deals they can make, just like LV did with MAF (the original deal).
I'm not saying a late 1st+small CDump for Ryan @ TDL is a foregone conclusion, but it's certainly in the ballpark. Assuming he scores at ~.5ppg or better, he's likely worth a late 2nd. Now add a $1-3m CD from X trade partner & Bingo, Bango! A late 1st for DET.
CURRENT CAP SPACE
: $14,215,104
DEADLINE CAP SPACE : $42,098,577
Now assume (0-50% retention) + take on $1-4m CDump (ending in '21) for:
2nd - Bernier? (I'd keep him for stability & resign 1yr). (Merrill & Stech)-I'd keep both...stability & they've performed well. Resign Merrill after EDraft.
possibly LGD?
3rd- Flip
4th- Helm, Djoos?
5th-Staal, DDK?
6th-Erne, Brome?
7th-Nielsen?
With upto 50% retention + CapDump is Huge, Yuuugggeee for playoff teams.
Djoos, Erne, and Brome aren't getting traded they're all RFA. Stech is signed for next season. Flip, Helm, Staal, DDK, Gagner, and Nielsen have negative trade value, even with retention. That might change if they start lighting it up in the next 10 games, but I doubt that happens.
Ryan, Bernier, Nemeth, Merrill, and LGD are the top candidates. Someone might want Helm, probably Holland, lol.
I don't see a 1st in there at all even if the team did take a cap dump, because Chris isn't going to take any big dumps (lol). Certainly not any contracts that don't expire this season.
Your best hope for a late first is Holland trading down. They've traded away their 2nd, 3rd, and 5th round picks so you know it's his MO to trade the 1st for 2 seconds or a second and third.
You realize that there are some cap savings once a player passes through waivers, yes?
They don't save cap space until the player is re-assigned to either the taxi squad or AHL. Nielsen is actually still on the roster. Also, it's $1.075M pro-rated cap space. (I calculated that off DDK's cap hit since I wasn't sure if that number went up.)
Detroit Red Wings - CapFriendly - NHL Salary Caps