Hawks Cap Nightmare Alllllllllmost Over
by Quisp on Jun 30, 2010 8:05 PM PDT
in Capmania, Capaphobia, Capaphilia, Capnesia
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Maybe at some point the Chicago fans who decided I was crazy will notice that Stan Bowman is apparently exactly as crazy as I am because he has done nearly everything I said he would have to do to disentangle himself from the Hawks' cap situation he most inherited from Dale Tallon.
Kris Versteeg has been traded to the Leafs. For whom? I don't know. Somebody who makes $800K, give or take. So, the casualty list is now Cam Barker, Andrew Ebbett, Dustin Byfuglien, Ben Eager, Brent Sopel, Kris Versteeg, John Madden, Nick Boynton, Adam Burish, Colin Fraser, and, ultimately (we all know it's coming) Cristobal Huet. Factoring in the Hawk's presumed $3.7MM bonus cushion penalty, this puts the Hawks where exactly?
If you assume they re-sign Niemi, Ladd and Hjalmarsson at $3MM, $2.5MM and $2.25MM, respectively, and assume that Corey Crawford will be promoted as the back-up, the Hawks are now $1.66MM UNDER the cap with 16 players signed.
So close to being out of the woods, they can see sunlight breaking through the trees. Or whatever.
If you assume they fill out their roster with five more cheap players -- I use $700K as the average cap hit, just for convenience -- that's 5 times $700K, or $3.5MM. That will put them $1.8MM over with a full roster. Or you could call it $1.05MM over with a bare bones league-minimum roster of 20, if you're willing to live dangerously.
There really is no clear and obvious way to get rid of that last $1.05-1.8MM. Kopecky and Brouwer don't make enough to be worth dumping. The best solution I can come up with is not going to make some people happy, but really I don't see any way around it.
Sign and trade Andrew Ladd. Replace him with a $700K guy, and you have a net cap savings of exactly $1.8MM. You will have a roster of 21 and you will be exactly at the cap ceiling.
The only alternatives I see to that are (1) sign and trade Niemi or Hjalmarsson and replace with cheap people, or (2) pray that this whole bonus cushion penalty thing is actually a nightmare within a bigger nightmare. Maybe they'll catch a break. Who knows?
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If anything, I think you're being cautious
At least when it comes to Niemi. Consider that Pavelski got $4 mil, and his team didn’t even win the Cup. I think Niemi kind of has Chicago over a barrel, and he could hold out for at least $3.5 mil.
I can imagine his agent telling Junior Bowman: “I’m sure you’ll find a way to pay my boy what he’s worth…. Unless you want to explain to your fans why Huet and Crawford are your goalies.”
Really
they’ve traded 10 and presumably 11 guys already? damn, short celebration for the champs.
Quisp, do you have any sources you talk to about trades and such?
I have no sources whatsoever. For anything.
Well, that’s not entirely true. But the people I actually know, I could never cite, so in a way they’re reverse sources. If they tell me something, I immediately can’t know it or say anything about it.
Wait till this year.
McKenzie’s twitter already has a trade rumor shipping Ladd to ATL. That was quick.
In Dinglebarn We Trust
not exactly, I would say traded 3 and presumably 4
They have to make room to keep the core, no team will look identical from year to year. In regards to trading away the champs….
Cam Barker (Traded before the Trade deadline, not part of the Finals) Andrew Ebbett(Claimed off Waivers from the Ducks, played 10 games and got Claimed off Waivers by the Wild in November)
Free Agents – Boynton, Burish, Madden – technically Hawks could resign any of them.
Eager and Fraser – Both Free Agents.
Dustin Byfuglien(casualty of war), (FA), Brent Sopel(bottom Blue Liner — great PK and Shot Blocker though), Kris Versteeg(bad contract last year, Casualty of war).Eager was going to be a Free Ageny
Huet — he will be gone but c’mon
I don’t follow the cap madness too much so you may already know this, but my buddy who went to the coaches clinic talked quite a bit with Quenneville and learned that Chicago must go under the cap by the amount they went over (around 2 million?). So he said they have to be under LAST year’s cap ceiling by 2 mil, not this year’s! Not sure if I translated all that correctly but I thought it was interesting.
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