Another key thing to understand is the cap figure. Yes, it's $39 million, but that doesn't mean you can't have players on your roster whose annual salaries add up to more than $39 million.
You just can't have them on your roster for the whole year. That $39 million figure is not some mythical paper-number, it's how much a team can actually spend on salaries in one year.
So a team that runs way below the cap for most of the year could conceivably add a big salary player at the trade deadline and, on a paper payroll, go over the cap - so long as the actual money spent on salaries stays below $39 million, it's not a problem.
I didn't understand that in the least, but it just dawned on me. In case anyone else in confused, it is not a loophole.
e.g.
- Leafs have 38.1 million dollars payroll at trade deadline.
- New York is willing to trade Jagr and his 4.8 or whatever salary to the Leafs.
- Well, the Leafs would be at 42.9 and above the salary cap, right?
- No, they wouldn't because the Leafs are only responcible for paying Jagr for the last 15-20 games of the season. Which would be about 1.2 million so they would still be under the cap at 39.3.