Doggy

If they bury Huet, trade Sharp and are lucky enough to get Niemi for $3.5m, this is their situation: CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR FORWARDS Patrick Kane ($6.300m) / Jonathan Toews ($6.300m) / Marian Hossa ($5.275m) Troy Brouwer ($1.025m) / Dave Bolland ($3.375m) / Tomas Kopecky ($1.200m) Jake Dowell ($0.525m) / Viktor Stalberg ($0.850m) / Jack Skille ($0.600m) / Jeff Taffe ($0.550m) DEFENSEMEN Brian Campbell ($7.142m) / Duncan Keith ($5.538m) Brent Seabrook ($3.500m) / Niklas Hjalmarsson ($3.500m) John Scott ($0.512m) GOALTENDERS Corey Crawford ($0.800m) /Antti Niemi ($3.500m) CARRY-OVER BONUS PENALTY: $4,157,753 CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter) (these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion) SALARY CAP: $59,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $54,651,590; BONUSES: $65,000 CAP SPACE (17-man roster): $4,813,410 Just under $5m for a minimum of 5 more players. Not a desirable situation but probably their best case scenario. Can a team with Kopecky as a top 3 winger really contend for the Cup?

Sorry double.

Not even close. According to capgeek they have $140k to sign 6 more players. They'll need to keep Niemi, get rid of Huet and sign a Turco or Theodore type goalie. This probably means moving Sharp to pay for Niemi. Getting rid of Huet will allow them to fill out the roster with scrubs and sign a semi-decent backup.

Arbitration is just a way of settling contract disputes for RFA's. It's not a special type of contract. A player whose contract was agreed to after arbitration is no different to any other player whose contract was not. Arbitration just gives the two sides a number. So unless they agree to a contract with a NTC, yes they can trade him. The only thing I can think of that may have confused you is offer sheets. A player signed on a matched offer sheet can't be traded for a year I think.

Better there than on VS. Good for him. A great Detroiter.

Might need to fix this one up a touch for you.

Yeah. Sadly for Atlanta, the arbitrator was obviously unaware at the time that David Perron was about the sign a 2 year/$4.3m. A cap hit of $2.15m and clearly a much better RFA of a comparable age. Perron's contract really highlights the ridiculousness of MacArthur award. ...and people were pissed at what the arbitrator gave Hudler.

Plus they have like $27m in cap space. Although, it does make me curious about their decision to decline to sign MacArthur.

It would be far from Bowman's first choice. If someone gives him an offer sheet next off-season, it could well be worth a first-, second- and third-round pick to the Hawks. Maybe even two first and the others. Sharp is a bigger cap hit, for two seasons, after which he'll become a UFA and they'll get zero in lieu of his absence. Plus, Bowman being the son of his father, I'm sure he believes in building from defense. With this in mind, IMO it makes much more sense to move Sharp than Seabrook.

Ladd would likely get $3m from an arbitrator when compared to MacArthur's. He'd probably be worth it to them. It'd be stupid to trade for them and not sign them though.

If they go with Huet they'll have to lose Sharp anyway.

Byfuglien is contracted through 2010/2011 as is Todd White. These guys are still without contracts, but I'm sure Little, Ladd, Eager and Bergfors are more likely to be regulars for Atlanta than Cormier. They're all RFA's. I would imagine their re-signing would be somewhat of a formality.

Would that count as cap circumvention? Gotta be careful.

I realise you're kdding around. But players like Doughty don't become RFA's unless they don't like the team they play for.

It's understandable that people would compare Kovalchuk's contract to Zetterberg's, but NJ has circumvented the cap more obviously than Detroit has. Below are the cap advantages of each players retirement by age at the beginning of the season (beginning at 35): Zetterberg 35 2015-2016 $1,509,524 36 2016-2017 $1,497,917 37 2017-2018 $1,433,334 38 2018-2019 $1,016,667 39 2019-2020 $462,122 40 2020-2021 $0 Kovalchuk 35 2018-2019 $3,833,333 36 2019-2020 $3,500,000 37 2020-2021 $2,954,545 38 2021-2022 $2,270,833 39 2022-2023 $1,676,923 40 2023-2024 $1,167,857 41 2024-2025 $726,667 42 2025-2026 $340,625 43 2026-2027 $0 Choose whichever year you think they're most likely to retire. IMO, while both could be called circumvention, the gap between the two is large enough that Lamoriello's could be considered illegal while Holland's not. Edit: I don't necessarily think it will or should be rejected, but I do think a line needs to be drawn. This is getting very close to crossing it.

They can't change any of the terms of the offer sheet he signed.

They're so f***ed.

Yeah I doubt the NHLPA will do anything. I know they're slightly different circumstances, but they certainly didn't do anything for Nylander last season. Washington easily circumvented most of his $4.9m cap hit. BTW it's Crawford you're thinking of.

I can't disagree more about this being an overpayment. He's a great character guy, and a solid scorer.

Apparently he wants 3 years and the Ducks want 4 or 5 according to Bob McKenzie. That's the only issue.

Raycroft to Dallas from McKenzie.

Bitter.

Why are you posting about the MTV Video Music Awards here? Oh wait... my bad.

Would the 'Hawks have won with Colin Fraser taking all their important draws and centering the top line? I don't think so. Comparing a player to a below average counterpart does not increase said player's value.

Didn't Niedermayer win it in 07? You're thinking of '03 and he thoroughly deserved it then. Big pads or not. On-topic: this thread is a joke.