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Capped out: Flat salary cap makes NHL teams get creative

By The Associated Press

In the 16 years since the salary cap has been a reality in the NHL, it has never been this much of a challenge to maneuver.

Teams that made moves in 2019 and right up to the 2020 trade deadline expected the cap to increase substantially from the current $81.5 million. Then the pandemic hit, the league and players’ association agreed to freeze the ceiling at that number, and executives had to get creative to be cap-compliant for opening night of the most unusual season in hockey history.

The defending Stanley Cup champion Tampa Bay Lightning set a roster that, when injury allowances are factored in, is just $334 from the cap ceiling. It’s a similar situation for the St. Louis Blues, who are within $300,000 of the cap with hopes of adding Vladimir Tarasenko when he’s ready to return from another shoulder operation. The Vegas Golden Knights started with the an unusual lineup of five defensemen and 13 forwards because they figured playing short on the blue line was less risky than exposing a young player to waivers.

“This is the hardest year to manage a flat cap,” Blues general manager Doug Armstrong said by phone. “It’s certainly no one’s fault at the league or the PA or the players or the management. It just caught everybody off guard.”

A team can’t be over the cap and would have to play with fewer than the standard 18 skaters if necessary. It has happened a handful of times since the cap was implemented in 2005.

What’s usually a difficult balancing act became a trapeze show this year for GMs and their cap gurus to save every dollar. According to the database site Puckpedia, 22 of 31 teams either started the season using the long-term injured reserve exemption to go over or were within $2 million of the cap.

The Lightning faced a crunch before becoming bubble hockey champions and were only able to avoid more treacherous cap gymnastics and losses when star Nikita Kucherov was lost for months because of a hip injury that required surgery. They still gave up a second-round pick and center Cedric Paquette in a trade with Ottawa and had to play opening night without forward Tyler Johnson to make it work. He was stashed on the taxi squad — created just this season to help teams deal with roster headaches — after clearing waivers.

“It isn’t ideal, but it’s manageable,” Tampa Bay GM Julien BriseBois said. “Part of the ingredients necessary to success in the NHL is team depth. In order to have team depth, you need to properly manage your cap space.”

Even without Kucherov — who could be activated for the playoffs when the cap doesn’t matter — Tampa Bay is again a title contender.

“A big part of that is what Julien was able to do,” coach Jon Cooper said. “To be able to keep a group together that had some success last year, obviously, that took some work. And you have to be prepared for every scenario that’s going to come at us. He was.”

Armstrong and Blues assistant Ryan Miller were, too. They went through several “what if?” scenarios after it was clear forward Alex Steen couldn’t keep playing because of an injury.

Much like the Washington Capitals used long-term injury cap allowances to make up for losing goaltender Henrik Lundqvist and defenseman Michal Kempny by signing former Boston captain Zdeno Chara, the Blues made the most of Steen’s retirement by adding one of the top free agents available in Mike Hoffman just before training camp.

Oh, and they should get Tarasenko back healthy and under the cap just in time for the stretch run.

“Our goal is to have him ready,” Armstrong said.

And the dance isn’t over. The Montreal Canadiens continue to cycle some of their top young players through their taxi squad for no reason other than to bank cap space for later; those players don’t need waivers and instead are paid minor league salary for taxi squad days while they practice and await a call-up.

SITTING STARS

The NHL’s first COVID-19 outbreak came for the Dallas Stars, who had 17 players test positive for the virus. Their first four games were postponed with the new season opener scheduled for Friday at Nashville, which had its game Tuesday against Carolina postponed.

Veteran coach Rick Bowness is prepared for more changes.

“I’ve laid out this whole thing and a map on a day-to-day basis and it’s in pencil, so we can erase it and change it,” Bowness said. “We’ll adapt and we’ll just roll with what each day brings us.”

STRUGGLING BRUINS

The Boston Bruins are the only team (aside from Dallas) to not score an even-strength goal so far this season. They’ve won a game in a shootout, lost one in overtime and were shut out in regulation.

“Yes, I would say there would be some frustration,” coach Bruce Cassidy. “That’s been a bit of a challenge for our (defensemen) is getting shots through on a consistent basis and being there to get the tips and screens and those kind of ugly goals. That’s the challenge in front of us, and we’ll keep harping on it.”

GAME OF THE WEEK

The Bruins hope to get on track against the Philadelphia Flyers on Thursday night in the first half of a two-game series in Boston.

LEADERS (through Monday)

Goals: Mitch Marner and John Tavares (Toronto), Bobby Ryan (Detroit), Phil Kessel (Arizona), Connor McDavid (Edmonton), Travis Konecny (Philadelphia), Andrei Svechnikov (Carolina), Tomas Hertl (San Jose), Filip Forsberg (Nashville), each with 3; Assists: Jack Eichel (Buffalo), 5; Points: Eichel, Tavares, Marner, Hertl, Taylor Hall (Buffalo), 6; Ice Time: P.K. Subban (New Jersey), 28:21; Save Percentage: Semyon Varlamov (N.Y. Islanders), Alexandar Georgiev (N.Y. Rangers), 1.000.

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Follow AP Hockey Writer Stephen Whyno on Twitter at https://twitter.com/SWhyno

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More AP NHL: https://apnews.com/NHL and https://twitter.com/AP_Sports

Capitals salary cap situation could force tough offseason, expansion draft choices

By J.J. Regan
Caps faced with tough choices due to salary cap originally appeared on NBC Sports WashingtonThe Capitals may not be planning a rebuild this offseason, but changes are coming. The team's salary cap situation is going to dictate a lot of what the Caps do this offseason and will force the team to part with some significant players.Washington currently has 11 forwards, seven defensemen and one goalie under contract with a cap hit of just over $72 million."We're still going to have a veteran team because that's our core," Capitals General Manager MacLellan said at the team's final media availability of the season late last month.The first problem is that the salary cap is going to remain flat at $81.5 million for the 2021-22 season. Typically, the cap rises every year based on expected revenue, but the pandemic has changed that. It's complicated, but the players are going to owe the owners a significant amount of money from the 2020-21 season so the cap is going to stay in place until the players are able to pay that money back. This could take several years.A flat cap is an issue for Washington because it means no cap relief, but several other teams are going to be in similar positions. With more teams out there trying to shed cap and fewer willing to take it on, MacLellan's options will be limited.The second issue is a big one: Alex Ovechkin. He finished out the last year of his contract. Though he is expected to re-sign, it is also expected that his cap hit is going to go up from his previous $9.5 million which is already more cap space than the team has left.Basically, a team with an aging core that lost in the first round in each of the past three postseasons does not currently have the cap space to re-sign Ovechkin, re-sign goalie Ilya Samsonov who is expected to be the No.1 goalie heading into the season and add any players to improve the roster.That's why even though the team won't commit to a rebuild this year, changes are still coming and they will have to be significant.Don't forget, when a team moves a player it means having to bring in another to replace him. That's why trying to move a fourth-line player or a bottom-pair defenseman is not going to be enough. Moving a player like Garnet Hathaway, for example, would only clear up $1.5 million worth of cap space. But even if he's replaced with a prospect making only $700,000, the team has only saved $800,000 against the cap.That's not going to cut it and this will ultimately force MacLellan's hand this offseason.When asked about the possibility of trading away Evgeny Kuznetsov, MacLellan said: "I think we're always open to trading people if it makes sense for what's going on. If it's going to make our team better, I think we're open to it. I don't think anybody's off the table. We're not going to trade Ovi or [Nicklas Backstrom] and those type of people, but I think you have to be open on anything. We would talk to anybody about any player."Even if MacLellan didn't want to trade Kuznetsov, his cap hit is $7.8 million. His trade value is probably the lowest it has ever been at this point, but it is something the team will have to explore if, for no other reason, than to try to recoup cap space.The Seattle expansion draft is also looming. It's a good news/bad news prospect for Washington as the Caps are going to lose a player off their roster which could ease the cap situation, but that may mean giving up a better player than MacLellan would want to give up for nothing.T.J. Oshie's name has been widely speculated as a possible target for Seattle given he was born in Washington state, is still a productive player and is the type of personality a new team could easily promote. He is also 34 years old with four years remaining on a contract with a cap hit of $5.75 million.In his postseason availability, MacLellan didn't seem happy with an option of losing him to Seattle."[Oshie] continues to produce, he continues to be a big part of what's going on in the room and on the ice. He's a big part of our organization. It would hurt our team and our organization if we lost him in the expansion draft," he said.But again, he may have no choice.(Oshie, for his part, told reporters that he wanted to stay in D.C.)RELATED: With expansion draft looming, Oshie wants to stay with the CapsWhat if the Kraken look at the Caps roster and decide to go after a player like goalie Vitek Vanecek? Samsonov may be expected to be the No. 1, but Vanecek's cap hit is less than $717,000. Replacing him with a different backup goalie would probably be more expensive, thus making the situation worse. Losing a player and losing cap space in the expansion draft would be the absolute worst-case scenario for Washington. Could that force MacLellan to make a tough decision about Oshie?The Caps may not want to rebuild and they may still have belief in their core as championship contenders, but for a team that does not see the need to make significant changes to the roster, they will have no choice.They have to clear cap space. The question is how?
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