Salary Cap
Real Money
How the hell are these related? I mean.....They literally aren't. Pens willingly are losing 1.5 mil Cap on this vs buyout. That's a whole bottom six player. But f*** building a team...They could save a couple million from their billionaire ownership group.
The ownership has been great. I have no problem with the strategy they are implementing now. It is easy for you to criticize ownership and say they should lose millions because they are not allowed to finish a season and the next season might also have several restrictions that hurt a small market team like the Pens that rely heavily on gate revenue. It is easy for you to say lose those millions. You are also probably the type of person that thinks it's okay to tax the rich to redistribute to the people that sit on their butt's.
Pens ownership has been great and has always spent to the cap to give this team a chance to win during the Crosby era. I am fine with them spending less now until the league is back to normal and fans are actually able to go to the games and fill the seats. Ownership also said that Rutherford can spend to the cap at the deadline if he needs to. This way we can use the cap to add as much as needed and will have plenty of space to add. Not only does this give us a ton more cap space to spend because $8 million cap space to start the season is worth close to $20 million or more by the trade deadline. Pens can add a lot while not paying the full load of those contracts.
Bottom line is Mario saved this team more than once and I am very grateful. If Pens need to cut salary during these times I am not going to be a spoiled fan and cry about it. This is not the Pirates ownership who makes tons of cash each year off the Pirates and pockets the money. Pens ownership is fine breaking even and I don't blame them for not wanting to lose $10 million this season. It is easy for you to tell other people to run a business into losing millions. That is how the Pens went bankrupt before.
This team will surprise people this year. We can still put out a very good team even with a budget in the low to mid $70 million range. Many of these cuts will be improvements with the youth taking the spots such as POJ instead of JJ, Kapanen at RW instead of Hornqvist, Poulin at LW instead of McCann, Maniscalco/some traded young defenseman to replace Schultz. Bjugstad gave us nothing last season at 3C due to injury and ineffective play so his replacement will almost definitely improve on him. So Pens could easily be better even with the cash savings. Knowing that we can spend more at the deadline also makes me comfortable. We can play the young players and bring in improvements at the deadline if some of the youth prove not ready.
Bottom line is Schultz $5.5 million, Bjugstad $4.1 million, JJ $3.25 million cap hits combine to close to $13 million cap hit last year and they provided nothing. Honestly Lafferty, POJ, and Maniscalco couldn't be any worse and would save over $7 million even with retention of $2 million for Bjugstad and $1.625 million of JJ 50% retained.
