Breaking Down The Salary Cap

[wingsownnhl43 14]

As of right now, for next year, this is how our roster/cap situation looks

Pavel Datsyuk

Henrik Zetterberg

Johan Franzen

Valtteri Filppula

Daniel Cleary

Tomas Holmstrom

Kris Draper

Kirk Maltby

Darren Helm

Nick Lidstrom

Brian Rafalski

Nick Kronwall

Brad Stuart

Jonathan Ericcson

Andreas Liljia

Brett Lebda

Derek Meech

Chris Osgood

Jimmy Howard

This is 19 players, and 3,229,347 million under the cap. We would need to sign at least three more players to fill out a legal roster. Assuming the cap stays the same, I see no feasible way to re-sign Marian Hossa. If the cap goes down, there is definitely no way we re-sign him Rafalski, Cleary, Holmstrom all have no trade clauses. Even if we traded away Filppula, we'd be only 6.2 million under the cap. If Flip was traded and we slot Hossa in at 6 million, we'd be 200 thousand under the cap and still have to sign 3 more players to fill out a legal roster.

The only feasible way that Hossa remains a Red Wing is if the cap goes up AT LEAST 3 million. Here is my only scenerio.

Cap up 3 million... We have 6.2 mil in cap room with 19 players on the roster.

1. Trade Flip... 9.2 mil in cap room, 4 more players need to be signed.

2. Sign Hossa to a long contract. 6 million dollar cap hit. 3.2 million in cap room, 3 more players need to be signed.

3. Sign Leino to his current figure .875. 2.325 cap room, 2 more players need to be signed.

4. Re-Sign Hossas fellow countrymen, Tomas Kopecky to 500 thousand. 1.825 in cap room. 1 more player to fill out a legal roster.

5. I think Hudler is going to be looking for a pay raise. I dont see him signing for less than 1.825. Even if he would agree to 1.5, thats only .325 in cap space. So re-sign Samuelsson to 1.2.

6. Now we have .625 in cap space with 22 players under contract

Holmstrom-Datsyuk-Hossa

Cleary-Zetterberg-Franzen

Leino-Samuelsson-Kopecky

Helm-Draper-Maltby

Meech

Lidstrom-Rafalski

Stuart-Kronwall

Ericcson-Liljia

Lebda

Osgood

Howard

Lastly, if the cap does go up at least 3 million, it comes down to this...

Either keep Filppula and Hudler

or

-Re-Sign Hossa to another long term contract ( I don't know how i feel about having 3 10year plus contracts in the cap world)

- Get compensation for Hudler, being that he is a restricted free agent.

- Get returns on Filppula, being that he's traded in this scenerio

--------------

Upshot,

We would be losing two 25 year old players, and re-signing a 30 year old player. However, I think bringing up Leino and letting Hudler walk will be a wash. I love Filppula but we would get returns on him, and get compensation for Hudler, so if we do Re-sign Hossa we would get value that could replace Hudler and Filppula.

Ive crunched the numbers a few times and to me, it comes down to Hudler and Filpulla or Hossa.

Note: This is ONLY if the cap goes up at least three million. Otherwise, Hossa is as good as gone.

Edited May 21, 2009 by wingsownnhl43

[Guest Shoreline]

Filppula isn't going to be traded. Erase him from that scenario.

The Wings are going to lose players. More likely than not, one of them will be Hossa. Which is fine with me -- he was a rental anyways.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Shoreline

[wingsownnhl43 14]

Filppula isn't going to be traded. Erase him from that scenario.

The Wings are going to lose players. More likely than not, one of them will be Hossa. Which is fine with me -- he was a rental anyways.

I agree with you. I bring that up because trading Filppula is the ONLY possible way to keep Hossa. Otherwise, the re-sign Hossa discussion needs to stop because its not happening.

[HadThomasVokounOnFortSt 878]

This will not work.

[PROBIE4PREZ 58]

i have a spread sheet going just like this and I tinker with it all the f'n time ... Hossa threatens the depth of this team and for that reason ..... he goes and gets soome BENJAMINS!!! llol .. the topics now should be "How much will a team overpay Hossa this June." im guessing he gets 9-10 million ... sickening

[Decoy Jones 0]

Hossa has been great for us during the regular season. At the end of the regular season I was a little sad Franzen had signed and not Hossa. Now that we're 2 game sinto the WCF I feel different. Don't get me wrong I like Hossa and I like'd the idea of keeping him around but he's just too expensive. I think we can all agree the wings post season success has been laregly due to it's depth.

With that being said, I think we should let Hossa go and keep most of our depth guys like Hudler, Leino and (I can't beleive I'm saying this) Sammy. With the addition of Helm to the roster the lines could look somthing like this:

DHZ

Franzen Cleary Filppula

Hudler Sammy Leino

Draper Helm Maltby

We've seen so many teams with one or two good lines and not too many of them did that well in the playoffs.

[Bannedforlife 403]

Id rather trade Kronwall instead of Filppula, and I'd rather sign Bouwmeester over Hossa.

Edited May 21, 2009 by Bannedforlife

[tommingthepuck96 1]

Its annoying when people think just anyone can play center, not to mention a top 6 center. Babcock will NEVER put sammy at center maybe at best a fourth line center but only on a rare occasion... Filppulas not getting traded, hossa is likely be gone next year.

[NomadFromKazoo 42]

There seems to be abolutely nothing new here. This has been done to death, all well known points.

[wingsownnhl43 14]

There seems to be abolutely nothing new here. This has been done to death, all well known points.

Not if you listen to 97.1 the ticket. They still talk about resigning Hossa as if we have an unlimited amount of cap space.

[Guest mindfly]

Samuelsson is most likely gone, you can almost count on it, although his cap hit is only 1.2M...

[NomadFromKazoo 42]

Samuelsson is most likely gone, you can almost count on it, although his cap hit is only 1.2M...

His cap space this year isn't the issue. He's a UFA and clearly has earned a pretty good raise, that's what we can't afford if we sign Hossa.

[GoWings1905 2,694]

I just want Hudler back. I have pretty much accepted Hossa is going to leave.

[xtrememachine1 795]

I'm kind of torn on this. Hossa will be expensive, but with Lidstrom's $7.4 mil contract on the verge of expiring after next year, I would hate to see someone who fits our system perfectly, like Hossa, leave the team. On the other side of that, as stated before, the Wings depth is more important and we can't lose that. We would essentially give up an entire line to keep Hossa. Maybe the right move is to let Hossa walk, keep our depth, then in the next offseason when we have some of (or all of) Lidstrom's money available we sign someone else that can fill the hole left by Hossa.

If Hossa was scoring goals in this postseason, it would make this decision so much easier, but could you imagine not having Hudler, Flip and Sammy and have Hossa playing the way he is right now. Yes, backchecking is important and Hossa is doing it extremely well, but someone has to score the goals. We would not be this far without the goals scored by Hudler and Sammy.

[Reds4Life 51]

Hossa - 45 million for 15 years, cap hit 3 million a year. Frontloaded. Hossa retires after 6-7 years.

[e_prime 1,936]

Not if you listen to 97.1 the ticket. They still talk about resigning Hossa as if we have an unlimited amount of cap space.

And why would you do that in the first place? I don't trust 90% of jock-talker's knowledge of hockey, and certainly no-one on that station.

On topic:

We're beating this dead horse of a topic into the ground.

I certainly would love for Hossa to be signed, but not at the expense of depth.

Moving forward, can't we talk about who we could sign instead of Hossa?

[Datsyerberger 279]

I would still love to keep Hossa if it somehow works out, but I do remember that we did quite fine without (and against!) him.

Here's a curious question: What's more valuable, Lilja or 500k in cap space?

Raffi - Lids

Kronwall - Stuart

Ericsson - Lebda

is better than last year's cup winning

Raffi - Lids

Kronwall - Stuart

Lilja - Lebda

If you drop Lilja and keep Cheli as a #8 d-man for another year for say, 600k, this frees up 500k in cap space and allows some of the other prospects besides Ericsson to move up in a year or two. Lilja's trade value is probably at its highest right now. Dunno if that would be a Holland-esque move, though.

Still, though, it would leave us around 3.7 mil to play with. Throwing in Abdelkader makes it 3.1 or so

ZDH

Franzen - Flip - Cleary

- Helm -

Maltby - Draper -

Abdelkader (only a handful of games in the regular season so he doesnt lose his ability to be sent up/down for now)

Raffi - Lids

Kronwall - Stuart

Ericsson - Lebda

Meech

Cheli

Assuming no changes beyond that, one of Hudler or Sammy is likely gone. Do you lose Sammy for nothing and keep Hudler who's still going to be stuck largely with borederline 2nd/3rd line minutes, or do you keep Sammy and save on cap space? I've got to think hsi RH shot and the fact we can get something for Hudler is valuable. Also, Sammy = pretty clutch in playoffs, and that's gotta factor in.

So let's say:

ZDH

Franzen - Flip - Cleary/Sammy

Leino - Helm - Sammy/Cleary

Maltby - Draper - Kopecky

Downey (2-way)

Abdelkader (up a few games at least)

Raffi - Lids

Kronwall - Stuart

Ericsson - Lebda

Meech

Cheli

Ozzie

Howard

Sammy for 1.5, Leino for 1, Kopecky for .6.. comes out to about 3.1, which fits within our target. Downey or Abdelkader get a call up the moment someone is injured to the point of IR.. remember that Meech can serve as our 13th forward, so at least 1 forward and 1 dman can be injured before a call up becomes a necessity.

Compare that to last years cup winning line up:

ZDH

Franzen - Flip - Sammy

Hudler - Draper - Cleary

Maltby - Helm - Drake

Raffi - Lids

Kronwall - Stuart

Any 2 of: Lilja/Lebda/Cheli

Ozzie

Hasek

Leino = Hudler? Hard to tell at this point, but from what I can tell we've got a Hudler with a larger frame and better boardwork.

Cleary now = better than Cleary then

Flip = improved

Franzen = improved (and he was good then!)

Helm = improved

Kopecky more or less = Drake. Less grit, more skill

Ericsson > Lilja

Yea, I see no reason why I couldn't live with that.

[RaySheppard26 0]

Not if you listen to 97.1 the ticket. They still talk about resigning Hossa as if we have an unlimited amount of cap space.

97.1 actually referenced hockey? It must've been when I was checking traffic on 950 for thirty seconds. Last time I heard any hockey talk, Valenti was talking about the Wings should've somehow signed 'Drew' Miller even though he never made it to free agency with Buffalo.

I guess I don't blame them, apparently a majority of the listeners want to hear about the Lions fouling up another draft as oppose to Wing's playoffs. I miss 1130 and their s***astic signal.

[Guest mindfly]

Seeing the playoff choker he's been thus far I wouldn't miss Hossa too much, players who only perform during regular season (read: Joe Thornton type players) can just leave, the door is over there like...

But he did have a good playoff run last year.. just a coincidence?

[GoWings1905 2,694]

Seeing the playoff choker he's been thus far I wouldn't miss Hossa too much, players who only perform during regular season (read: Joe Thornton type players) can just leave, the door is over there like...

But he did have a good playoff run last year.. just a coincidence?

I doubt it. He's playing for a contract this season too.

[Dimaline312000 51]

As much as I want to keep Hossa I just don't know if we can. Out of those three mentioned I'd be most willing to suffer the loss of Filppula. I think we are going to have to look at the cap right when it is addresed by the league and see how we can structure it. Goaltending I think is going to be a bigger issue that keeping or not keeping 3 great players. Holland said before the game on Trade deadline day that we were going to lose players no matter what and that he doesn't expect the cap to change much. Osgood we have locked in Howard won't be able to go back down so the bigger question is what to do with him many people and when I say people I me fans think Howard can't be a quality back-up or the Wings goalie of the future. I haven't heard much talk from any of the players or office staff of what they think about Jimmy. Conklin I'm willing to bet that Conklin is gone after this season.

I personally would like to see them give Howard an chance and maybe by the time Ozzie's contract is up or by the time he retires we'll be able to bring McCollum up because from what I've heard he turns pro this coming season and will be in GR for the start of next season. McCollum has be a great goaling in Juniors his team did make it to the Memorial Cup Finals and he was a big part of that. Maybe he will be able to get into the system faster and be brought up faster. Jim Howard didn't develop as fast as the Wings could have used him which in a way is fine because they made do and brought in goalies as needed. How much can we plan on spending on a back-up for Ozzie if we keep Howard how much is he going to want if we trade him and get a different goalie how much are we going to have to spend on him. Sammy I think will be gone after this season. That may open up some cap space to sign Hossa remember Holland did say he wanted to lock up one player before this season was over and he did that in Franzen and than see what happens after the season is over so the Wings may still have a chance at keeping Hossa if they really want him. As of right now Hossa looks like he is as good as gone because he's not producing the way we need him to this last in the playoffs. Franzen has been consistent again in these playoffs so it was a much better idea to sign Franzen first.

Let's not forget the draft not that we need anyone in a hurry and with the log-jam on Defense we shouldn't need anyone but maybe the Wings work out a deal to get a high drat pick in the 1st round or a high pick in the other 6 rounds. We need to star thinking future as well Liddy isn't going to be here forever and Holmsy won't either the Wings need to find another play that is willing to go to the net like Tomas has done throughout his entire career. When Lidstrom does go I'm confindent that the Blueline will be good and yes with players like Z, Dats and the Mule our offense should be good. Chelly I would't keep Chelios if he was willing to play for just $100.00 we don't need a part time defenseman and to me that is what he as become this season for the Wings. Stuart and Rafalski are also in question to. Maybe not so much Rafalski leaving next season but in another season or to and Sturat looks like he may also be good trade bait or something like that. Another question we could address is how physical is this team going to be in the future.

Granted we still ended up beating the Ducks with I think so far has been the most physical team in the playoffs but do the Wings need some size to be able to through the body around and have someone who can take care of the scores so that the big players on the other teams don't mess with them. Right now I'm personally favoring keeping as many young players as possible. Alot is going to be determined once the Wings find out what the Cap is going to do Forgive me for running on but this off-season to me is going to be the most intersting one in a long time for this team. Also forgive me if I coverd a topic that was already coverd.