IR Players and the Cap Revisited

[kdb209]

This has been discussed on the Devil's board and the NHL Talk board with respect to Lou being over the cap and how Elias salary is counted.

A post there brought back up a quoted section of the new CBA, and I thought it might be interesing to revisit it since it is a bit more detailed (and confusing) than the snippet in the CBA FAQ.

The source is from a blog which quoted a section (Article 50.10) of the new CBA:

http://www.canuckscorner.com/weblog/nhllog/archives/2005/08/it_hurts_it_hur.html

Some interesting exerpts and a VERY Intereresting example:

(a) All Player Salary and Bonuses paid to Players on an NHL Active Roster, Injured Reserve or Non Roster that are Unfit to Play -- being either injured or suffering from an illness -- shall be counted against a Club's Upper Limit, Actual Club Salary and Averaged Club Salary, as well as against the Players' Share. Notwithstanding the preceding sentence, a Club shall be permitted to exceed the Upper Limit by virtue of the Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception set forth in subsection (d) below.

(d) In the event that a Player...becomes unfit to play...such that the Club's physician believes, in his or her opinion that the Player...will be unfit to play for at least (i) 24 calendar days and (ii) 10 NHL Regular Season games and such Club desires to replace such Player, the Club may add an additonal Player or Players to its Active Roster, and the replacement salary and bonuses of such additional Player(s) may increase the Club's Averaged Club Salary to an amount up to and excluding the Upper Limit, solely as, and to the extent and for the duration, set forth below.

(ii) The Player Salary of the Player that has been deemed unfit-to-play shall continue to be counted toward the Club's Averaged Club Salary as well as count against the Players' Share...

(iii) The total replacement salary and bonuses for a Player or Players that have replaced an unfit-to-play player may not in the aggregate exceed the amount of the Player Salary and Bonuses of the unfit-to-play Player who the Club is replacing;

(iv) The replacement salary and bonuses for any Player(s) that replace(s) an unfit Player may be added to the Club's Averaged Club Salary until such time as the Club's Average Salary reaches the Upper Limit. A Club may then exceed the Upper Limit due to the addition of replacement salary and bonuses of Players who have replaced an unfit-to-play Player...

Illustration: A Player with a Player Salary of $1.5 million becomes unfit to play for more than 24 days and 10 games. At the time the Player becomes unfit to play, the Club has an Averaged Club Salary of $39.5 million, and the Upper Limit is $40 million. The Club may replace the unfit-to-play Player with another Player of Players with an aggregate Player Salary and Bonuses of up to $1.5 million. The first $500,000 of such replacement salary and bonuses shall count toward the Club's Average Club Salary, bringing the Averaged Club Salary to the Upper Limit. The Club may then exceed the Upper Limit by up to another $1 million as a result of the replacement salary and bonuses. However, if the unfit-to-play Player once again becomes fit to play, and the Club has not otherwise created any Payroll Room during the interim period, then the Player shall not be permitted to rejoin the Club until such time as the Club reduces its Averaged Club Salary to below the Upper Limit.

An important point that the example seems to show. In the case of an IR injury, the replacement salaries seem to first consume all available cap space before they become exempt from the cap (or are allowed to exceed the cap).

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