Matt Gunning
Registered User
I see a lot of people citing the salary totals listed on www.tsn.ca but that can be a little deceptive because of expensive RFA who need to be signed and the number of empty roster spots. For example Phoenix has a nearly full roster with almost no significant RFA so you have a good sense of their total salary commitments for the coming season. Here's what I did:
1) Use the average value of existing contacts and new free agent signings (TSN lists the cost for the current year, but it is the average cost that matters for the salary cap).
2) I inserted minimum qualifying offers for each team's RFA. For some players this is just the 450,000 minimum and for others (Joe Thornton) it is much more.
3) I inserted the minimum salary for any empty roster spots. I assume that each team will carry 23 players on their roster.
If you add this stuff it gives you an idea of the minimum salary that each team must pay out. The number will certainly be higher for teams like Atlanta which must sign Kovalchuk and Heatley RFA, but for other teams it may not change that much. Here are the 30 teams ranked by salary commitments.
Dollars/Team/major RFA to be signed yet.
$41.6 New Jersey: Elias, Gomez, V.Kozlov, Fresien
$40.2 Anaheim: Chistov, LeClerc
$39.1 Colorado: Aebischer
$37.5 Philadelphia: Gagne, K. Johnsson, Esche
$36.7 Dallas: Arnott, Morrow
$35.1 Ottawa: Hossa, Spezza, Havlat
$34.9 Boston: Thornton, Samsonov, Raycroft
$34.3 Chicago: Thibault, Bell, Arnason
$34.3 Vancouver: Sedins, Ohlund
$34.1 Toronto: Berg, Antropov
$34.1 NY Islanders: DiPietro, Parrish, Kvasha
$33.5 Detroit: Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Kronwall
$33.2 Montreal: Koivu, Theodore, Bulis
$32.8 NY Rangersoti Rachunek
$32.6 Calgary: Kiprosoff, Reinprecht
$31.4 St. Louis: Brewer
$31.3 Los Angeles: CAmmalleri, Frolov
$29.6 Edmonton: Smyth, Torres
$29.2 Tampa Bay: St. Louis, Lecavalier, Boyle
$28.7 Nashville: Legwand, Hartnell, Hamhuis
$28.4 Atlanta: Kovalchuk, Heatley
$28.4 Pittsbugh: Lemieux, Morozov, Tarnstrom
$26.6 Buffalo: Jillson, Afinogenov, Briere, Hecht
$26.3 Columbus
$25.1 Carolina: Brendl, Vasicek
$24.6 Washington: Zubrus, Halpern
$24.1 Minnesota: Bouchard, Zyzuin
$24.0 Phoenix
$24.0 San Jose: Marleau, Sturm
$21.9 Florida: Luongo, Jokinen, Hagman, Bouwmeester
Now in the first two years teams are allowed to exeed the cap by 10% under certain conditions, so you can hit $43 million and still be in compliance. But the top two teams New Jersey and Anaheim appear to have a problem on their hands right now.
new Jersey surprised me, but basically all six of their top scoring forwards are RFA. Elias, Gomez, Kozlov, Langenbrunner, Friesen, C. White. They are paying a lot to Brodeur (5.2) a super checker Madden (3.5) and a lot to their defense (Rafalski 5.2, Malakov 3.6 Matvichuk 1.4, McGillis 2.2) I have the other two RFA defensemen Hale and Martin making the minimum and they get more than that. It seems clear to me at least that New Jersey must move a forward or two to get some cap relief.
Anaheim is paying a huge amount ($21 million)to Fedorov (6.1) Giguere (4.0) S. Niedermayer (6.75) and Sykora (3.1). That is just over half of cap maximum. The other 19 players on the roster consume the other $19 million.
1) Use the average value of existing contacts and new free agent signings (TSN lists the cost for the current year, but it is the average cost that matters for the salary cap).
2) I inserted minimum qualifying offers for each team's RFA. For some players this is just the 450,000 minimum and for others (Joe Thornton) it is much more.
3) I inserted the minimum salary for any empty roster spots. I assume that each team will carry 23 players on their roster.
If you add this stuff it gives you an idea of the minimum salary that each team must pay out. The number will certainly be higher for teams like Atlanta which must sign Kovalchuk and Heatley RFA, but for other teams it may not change that much. Here are the 30 teams ranked by salary commitments.
Dollars/Team/major RFA to be signed yet.
$41.6 New Jersey: Elias, Gomez, V.Kozlov, Fresien
$40.2 Anaheim: Chistov, LeClerc
$39.1 Colorado: Aebischer
$37.5 Philadelphia: Gagne, K. Johnsson, Esche
$36.7 Dallas: Arnott, Morrow
$35.1 Ottawa: Hossa, Spezza, Havlat
$34.9 Boston: Thornton, Samsonov, Raycroft
$34.3 Chicago: Thibault, Bell, Arnason
$34.3 Vancouver: Sedins, Ohlund
$34.1 Toronto: Berg, Antropov
$34.1 NY Islanders: DiPietro, Parrish, Kvasha
$33.5 Detroit: Datsyuk, Zetterberg, Kronwall
$33.2 Montreal: Koivu, Theodore, Bulis
$32.8 NY Rangersoti Rachunek
$32.6 Calgary: Kiprosoff, Reinprecht
$31.4 St. Louis: Brewer
$31.3 Los Angeles: CAmmalleri, Frolov
$29.6 Edmonton: Smyth, Torres
$29.2 Tampa Bay: St. Louis, Lecavalier, Boyle
$28.7 Nashville: Legwand, Hartnell, Hamhuis
$28.4 Atlanta: Kovalchuk, Heatley
$28.4 Pittsbugh: Lemieux, Morozov, Tarnstrom
$26.6 Buffalo: Jillson, Afinogenov, Briere, Hecht
$26.3 Columbus
$25.1 Carolina: Brendl, Vasicek
$24.6 Washington: Zubrus, Halpern
$24.1 Minnesota: Bouchard, Zyzuin
$24.0 Phoenix
$24.0 San Jose: Marleau, Sturm
$21.9 Florida: Luongo, Jokinen, Hagman, Bouwmeester
Now in the first two years teams are allowed to exeed the cap by 10% under certain conditions, so you can hit $43 million and still be in compliance. But the top two teams New Jersey and Anaheim appear to have a problem on their hands right now.
new Jersey surprised me, but basically all six of their top scoring forwards are RFA. Elias, Gomez, Kozlov, Langenbrunner, Friesen, C. White. They are paying a lot to Brodeur (5.2) a super checker Madden (3.5) and a lot to their defense (Rafalski 5.2, Malakov 3.6 Matvichuk 1.4, McGillis 2.2) I have the other two RFA defensemen Hale and Martin making the minimum and they get more than that. It seems clear to me at least that New Jersey must move a forward or two to get some cap relief.
Anaheim is paying a huge amount ($21 million)to Fedorov (6.1) Giguere (4.0) S. Niedermayer (6.75) and Sykora (3.1). That is just over half of cap maximum. The other 19 players on the roster consume the other $19 million.
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