Well it's more like 2.5 million and Hamonic is rumoured @1 million. Not sure who these players Benning could be plucking away for free if we had cap that sounds like anti-Benning rhetoric. However, he has managed to snag JT who was a steal and Nate a legit top pairing Dman all without pissing a pick or prospect away just to get under the cap like Dubas, Lou, or Mcphee in Vegas did.
But as usual you toxic HF lifers will spin the facts as hard a CNN.
Well by cap friendly were presently $1.5 M over the cap. Ferland is $3.5 M saved. However, pretty clear that Harmonic is getting signed, I assume for about $1 M, though it might be a little more. So that leaves $1 M in cap space. (this has since been updated on cap friendly, the numbers seem a little wonky. Add in Hoglander for $1M and it looks like we have 20/23 contracts, and less than $1 M to spare, in fact pretty much nothing).
There are presently 10 other teams over the cap limit looking to shed salary. Sure, some of it can go to LTIR I assume, but others are going to have to make some deals. We've seen a few of them over the last few years. Schmidt is a great example.
We have 4 - 5 contracts that we would give away for nothing if we could, I believe. LE, SB and beagle for sure. Probably Sutter; and Roussel maybe. Maybe Meyers; certainly we overpaid for him. We are going to need that cap space to pay Hughes and EP (and hopefully Demko) next year.
If you consider CNN a "spin" job, one has to question your credibility.
And why do you call me "toxic"? Just because for the most part JB has done a poor job? This off season has been an exception, bringing in Hamonic cheap and getting Schmidt for a 3rd were good deals. Was at the draft where we acquired JTM, I though we seriously overpaid. in hindsight, its a decent deal.
Sonny, I have season tickets, and they have been in the family for over 50 years. So please drop the immature suggestion that you are the only one looking at this "fairly".