Not exactly correct Yoda
The "capman" says
a. Since the 04-45 year is credited as service it is included in the calculation . A 4 yr contract which included 03-4 season, 04-5 season 05 -season , 06-7season would include all 4 yrs so the average of the 3 yr is $700,000 the length of the contract (3 yrs)
There is a couple of additions to the $39 Mil besides the 23 man roster.
Quote
a. Over the summer, clubs can be 10 percent over the cap. From July 1 through Sept. 30, clubs are charged for all players in the organization signed to one-way contracts (average salary and prospective bonuses); the percent of NHL salaries to players on two-way deals based on the amount of time spent in the NHL the previous season, and all qualifiers and actual buyout payments. Beginning Oct. 1, the cap is calculated on the average contract value (including all possible bonuses) of only those players on the NHL roster, plus buyouts.
b. To prevent sandbagging a high end player in the minors then bringing them up at the end of the year there is a rumor that
Players on a 2-way contract (a much lower salary if he is sent down) - all ELS contracts are two-way. For AHL players on NHL (2-way) contracts, there was speculation that minor league salaries >$75K would count against the cap - this was to prevent teams from doing things like stashing CuJo and his $8M salary in the AHL. So if a low cost player (<$75K in minors) is sent down on a 2-way, his NHL salary no longer counts against the cap, and his minor league salary may or may not.
All contracts valid before the CBA was signed were rolled back 24% including --rookies and signees going to rookie camp As example, San Jose's Marcel Goc had his salary reduced from $850K to $646K, and Christian Ehrloff from $800K to $608K.
Exception was Jagr salary which is all screwed up with Wash and NYR paying but NYR eats the whole salary for cap purposes and he was reduced more than 24% because of the no player more than 20% ($7.8 Mil) max requirement of the team cap