New Salary Cap $56.8 mil

[KrazyGangsta 79]

I think Lilja's done.

[up2here 41]

TSN is reporting the cap is 57.8mil.

[Thunderpriest 8]

You can NOT count on saving 1.25 mil from Lilja. The Wings still must comply with the cap with his salary included at the start of the season. It does not give them free cap space to sign another player. If Lilja starts the season on LTIR then the Wings would get cap RELIEF up to the amount of his salary. **** Cap RELIEF is NOT the same as having cap SPACE. ******

So with Lilja's salary included and if he is on LTIR the Wings would bring up any defensemen in GR whose salary is less than or equal to 1.25 mil. And the miinute Lilja comes off LTIR the Wings must immediately comply with the cap.

The only way I would speculate Lilja's $$ coming off the cap is if his injury is serious enough that he won't be able to return and subsequently retires. (I fully expect him to come back, however, which I'd prefer. I'd much rather lose Lebda than Lilja.)

I was merely speculating based upon that possibility.

[joshy207 156]

TSN is reporting the cap is 57.8mil.

The headline says 57.8 but the article says 56.8. Nice. Doesn't anyone proofread anymore??

[Probie 7]

How about this roster. Its realistic, and I feel comfortable with the team we put on the ice, we are more well rounded next year, and we have a bit of cap space to play with ontop of everything. Assumptions used in this roster: Hossa does not come back, it kills our depth and I dont think we have the money anyways. Sammy is gone, he wants the bucks, we cant help him, besideds hes already in 33 next season, and he has enough flaws so he walks. Now at this point we have some older banged up guys who are near the end, and we are still tight with money at this point..these guys are draper maltby and homer. Drapes is just into his contract, hes was 35 or older when he signed it, and its hard to move him especially when you consider the loyalty equation and the contract. He stays for another year. Maltby we owe nothing to, hes been very fortunate to play on such as winning team for so long, but his offense is gone cause hes too old and hes shot. He lacks speed and energy and doesnt do anything for the team anymore. He retires, or is convinced to retire nicely. Homers 2.25M cap hit is needed for other players. Weve been very loyal to him, and hes been a a wing for along time. Your career ends or is really close to the end when you cant stay healthy and have to play through multiple bad injuries, miss lots of timeand your speed and scoring slips. Hes done as an effective player that we remember him as. I dont see him making it through another season without more injuries and more games missed, and he wont retain his speed enough to play with Pavs and Z, he wont be as effective on the PP, and I dont feel he brings enough to the fourth line with his lack of speed and energy, when we can get a better cheaper younger player to fill that role better. Homer retires. Abdelkader is up full time and adds toughness, physicality and youth, something the wings need. With the added cap space freed up I purchased a physical, tough big role playing penalty killer in Travis Moan. I hope we can sign him for about 1.7 or 1.8M. The only thing I dont like about this roster of mine is bring up a cheaper player to round out the fourth line due to the departures. For the sake of simplicity I added Ritola who makes about 511k. We could add a different player in his spot from our own system or via minor trade/free agent signing.

Here is what our roster looks like:

Here we have a 22 Man roster, with a cap hit of 56.073M, leaving an impressive 726+K of free cap space. We can tinker who plays on what line.

Lines are:

Forward:

Z-Dats-Cleary

Franz-Flip-Lieno

Huds-Helm-Gator

Moan-Draper-Ritola(or compareble player).

Meech=13th Forward

Defense:

Lidstrom Rafs

Kron Stuart

Lebda-Erricson

Lilja=Reserve 7th Dman

Goalies:

Ozzie

Howard

We are still loyal to an extent, brought in a tough physical penaltykiller(which we need) Free agent, got rid of some dead weight. The only issue i have with my roster spot is with Rittola their, but like i said we could switch him with someone else and we have abit of cap space to play with anyways. Each line has got some grit, except the second line which is kinda soft. But we can rotate them around. Yes i realize gator might not be ready for a third line role like i have him pencilled for but with the cap and free agent issues, well hes there and we can still tinker with the lines and move him to the fourth. If Lilja is still out with his head, Meech can switch from the reserve forward to reserve Dman, which is handy. Not a bad line up if you ask me, still a little soft for me. Our extra cap space could go toward Huds a bit who i have earning only 1.7M if he demands a but more which he will likely do.

Edited June 28, 2009 by Probie

[russianswede919293 95]

IMHO: Hudler has two choices. He has the choice to take a one year contract for less then 2 million dollars and test what the wings can offer and what he can get as a UFA next year. OR he can take a long term 3 milliion dollar contract from another team.

[Aussie_Wing 354]

OK here goes, my absolute pipe dream of a roster.

Datsyuk (6.7m) / Zetterberg (6.1) / Franzen (4.0)

Cleary (2.8) / Filppula (3.0) / Hudler (2.0)

Samuelsson (1.5) / Helm (0.6) / Leino (1.0)

Ritola (0.5) / Abdelkader (0.8) / Draper (1.6)

Kopecky (0.7)

Lidstrom (7.5) / Rafalaski (6.0)

Stuart (3.8) / Kronwall (3.0)

Lilja (1.2) / Ericsson (0.9)

Lebda (0.7)

Osgood (1.4) / Howard (0.7)

ROSTER: 22; PAYROLL: $56.8m; CAP ROOM: 384k

[wingsdiehard13 33]

OK here goes, my absolute pipe dream of a roster.

Datsyuk (6.7m) / Zetterberg (6.1) / Franzen (4.0)

Cleary (2.8) / Filppula (3.0) / Hudler (2.0)

Samuelsson (1.5) / Helm (0.6) / Leino (1.0)

Ritola (0.5) / Abdelkader (0.8) / Draper (1.6)

Kopecky (0.7)

Lidstrom (7.5) / Rafalaski (6.0)

Stuart (3.8) / Kronwall (3.0)

Lilja (1.2) / Ericsson (0.9)

Lebda (0.7)

Osgood (1.4) / Howard (0.7)

ROSTER: 22; PAYROLL: $56.8m; CAP ROOM: 384k

Other than your 4th line, that's probably what you're going to get.

[Aussie_Wing 354]

Other than your 4th line, that's probably what you're going to get.

Maltby is nice and cheap, Holmostrom too expensive so that's why I didn't include him.

Doing a realistic roster, there is no way we can re-sign Hossa. On top of that, I think one of Hudler and Samulesson are also gone, hopefully Sammy.

[wingsdiehard13 33]

Maltby is nice and cheap, Holmostrom too expensive so that's why I didn't include him.

Doing a realistic roster, there is no way we can re-sign Hossa. On top of that, I think one of Hudler and Samulesson are also gone, hopefully Sammy.

Geesh, I completely overlooked Holmstrom. He will be on the roster, but I'm sure you already know that considering you called it a pipe dream.