Detroit Hockey Now’s Kevin Allen has written an article discussing the Red Wings’ salary cap picture after signing every restricted free agent save Givani Smith:
In the NHL where 20 teams have less than $3 million salary cap remaining, the Detroit Red Wings will start the season with more than $13 million in salary cap space.
The Red Wings have $14.2 million remaining with only Givani Smith still to sign, according to CapFriendly.com. Only the Ottawa Senators and Buffalo Sabres have more cap space than the Red Wings. The Sabres have $23.6 million and the Senators are at $24.5 million with Brady Tkachuk still to sign
What’s remarkable is that Yzerman, at least on paper, significantly improved his team this offseason with the acquisitions of center Pius Suter, goalie Alex Nedeljkovic and defenseman Nick Leddy. He spent more than $11 million on those three players and that could not have been predicted. He also left room for prize prospect defenseman Moritz Seider.
Continued; whether you use CapFriendly or PuckPedia to check on salary cap space around the league, you’ll see that many teams are over the salary cap at present, so the Red Wings’ GM may not be done dealing quite yet.
A lot of those teams that are over the cap won’t be once they put players on LTIR. Off the top of my head, the Islanders are over the cap right now but won’t be when they put Boychuck’s $6m on LTIR, ditto for the Lightning with Seabrook’s salary, and the Blackhawks with Shaw’s salary. I know there are other teams as well that I can’t recall, but I’m too lazy to look them up right now as I’m currently in a food coma from dinner.
I still think we may see Stevie make a deal or two before the season starts, but there aren’t any teams in dire cap situations that we could pilfer, so they might just end up being pure hockey trades and not salary dumps like the Staal deal last season.
Agreed, most of the teams in “cap jail” will get out without having to make a move…But having flexibility with the cap frees the Wings up to make a move at any time this season, should a team suddenly need “help.” We’ll see what happens over the long haul as Yzerman looks to accrue draft picks.
There really is not any incentive to have a large amount of cap space unused. Some owners are cheap and make a loser owner happy.
I wonder how many Cup winning teams had a high Cap space remaining.
My guess would be Zero. Sabres always have large Cap Space and always loose and do not know how to draft potentially good players. Eichel is a team player, The Eichel team (roster of one)
Next year’s UFA list may be on Steve’s mind.