Pros/cons Re:signing bonuses

let's pretend that eventually they agree to a deal roughly as the NHL has proposed, some numbers altered, whatever.

What are the pros and cons of the following 2 scenarios, assuming signing bonuses count against the cap (and I'm assuming any performance bonuses, games played bonuses, etc, would as well):

(1) count the signing bonus only in the year paid

(2) average it out over the term of the contract

 

Count it in the year paid so a team can't front end an offer with a huge signing bonus.

 

It matters much more in the NFL where they don't have guarunteed contracts. As long as the NHL has guarunteed contracts, it wouldn't matter much how you structured a contract.

 

understood, I ithink I would be inclined to charge any signing bonus tot eh year in which it's paid.

If I'm a team that would rather be under the cap, but have to spend up to it, I like the option of being able to front-end load a contract for a player now to get me up to the cap, which would still leave me room in future years.

Say I'm looking at paying 30 mil for my young team this yer, but need to spend 34 to get up to the min, I may as well structure a 3 year contract 6.0/1.5/1.5 (or 1.5 per year with a 4.5 mil signing bonus) instead of 2.8/3.0/3.2 to get myself up to the min and retain flexiblity for next year.