And also, he might not reach his bonus criteria (whatever they are?) which gives the management more space to work with, since his actual salary is 894,167$, if it comes to that!
More space to work with? Most performance bonuses count towards the cap all season, because unless it is impossible to meet, it still counts towards the cap. Impossible does not mean scoring 15 goals in one game, if there is still a game left to play that goals performance bonus would still be on the books. Unable to meet in terms of something like a GP bonus where the games remaining are fewer than the games needed are the types of performance bonuses which adjust during the season.
In addition, the Caps are already using performance bonus cushion space and LTIR to maintain the current roster. Before Hillen on LTIR, they were using performance bonus cushion space and they still are. They were using performance bonus cushion space with Carrik and Latta's contracts when they were on the roster, too. At this time, they are using performance bonus cushion space with Wilson, Schmidt and Urbom plus Hillen LTIR cap to maintain this roster.
What's true is that Wilson or Schmidt or Urbom or someone else might not meet any or all of their performance bonuses in terms of end of year calculations and possibly not having to push any against next year's cap, but doesn't change things for this season.
Back to Wilson, I'm not a fan of how they utilized him the first nine games or the decision, but I am disappointed in the decision. I've expressed my reasons in this and other discussions on the topic.
I think most agree AHL would be ideal but we know that is not an option.
Back to the OHL discussion, while I agree there would be some possible targeting, as is well-established Wilson isn't a kid with a slight build, I think it is an over-stated concern. I do think there are things he could work on and improve at that level and I don't see how he's avoiding much with the hitting and fights occurring at the NHL level, too. From what I have observed, I think his Plymouth coach is spot on in the assessment he had of Wilson as told to
Ben Raby and reported here.