Some scuttlebutt that Tampa would be in a cap crunch if the cap doesn't go up next season... by my count we'd be okay:
CAPGEEK.COM ARMCHAIR GM ROSTER
TBL 2015
FORWARDS
Jonathan Drouin ($0.894m) / Steven Stamkos ($7.500m) / Ryan Callahan ($5.800m)
Ondrej Palat ($3.333m) / Tyler Johnson ($3.333m) / Nikita Kucherov ($0.712m)
Valtteri Filppula ($5.000m) / Vladislav Namestnikov ($0.874m) / Cedric Paquette ($0.633m)
Alexander Killorn ($2.550m) / Brian Boyle ($2.000m) / J.T. Brown ($0.950m)
Brett Connolly ($0.893m) /
DEFENSEMEN
Victor Hedman ($4.000m) / Anton Stralman ($4.500m)
Jason Garrison ($4.600m) / Radko Gudas ($0.992m)
Matt Carle ($5.500m) / Andrej Sustr ($0.918m)
Mark Barberio ($0.918m) /
GOALTENDERS
Ben Bishop ($5.950m)
BUYOUTS
Vincent Lecavalier ($0.000m)
Ryan Malone ($0.000m)
LTIR
Mattias Ohlund ($3.607m)
RETAINED SALARIES (2.32% of upper limit)
Sam Gagner ($1.600m—33.33%)
BONUS OVERAGE
$0
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CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(estimations for 2015-16)
SALARY CAP: $69,000,000; CAP PAYROLL: $63,450,312; BONUSES: $2,774,167
CAP SPACE (21-man roster): $5,549,688
Need an extra roster spot and a backup tender, which still leaves us with ~3mil in cap space likely. We may actually be able to make a move. One concern might be some bonuses that Namestnikov, Drouin, or Paquette may earn.
Plus, even if they don't vote for the escalator, the cap may go up a bit naturally. We'll survive. Also, backup tender may end up being Gudlevskis and there are certainly players in 'Cuse that could be callups/win a roster spot (such as Erne).