Breaking down the Senators’ cap situation
Even after all their wheeling and dealing at the start of free agency July 1, the Ottawa Senators still find themselves $4.264 million under what will be the salary-cap floor in the fall, $54.2 million.
Even after all their wheeling and dealing at the start of free agency July 1, the Ottawa Senators still find themselves $4.264 million under what will be the salary-cap floor in the fall, $54.2 million.
That puts them at the lower end of 16 teams that have to reach the floor by the end of training camp, according to capgeek.com.
The Columbus Blue Jackets are the closest to the floor, only $116,191 away, though they’ll have some work to do if they ever dump Rick Nash’s $7.8 million cap hit, while the Nashville Predators ($14.1 million), the Phoenix Coyotes ($12.3 million) and the St. Louis Blues ($9.8 million) have the most to spend.
Last year, the Senators were one of the NHL’s most frugal teams.
At the end of the year, their payroll was at $51.653 million, over the $48.3 million floor by only about $3.3 million.
By contrast, however, the Dallas Stars ($49.8 million), the Colorado Avalanche ($49.4 million), and the New York Islanders ($49.1 million) were a lot cheaper than Ottawa.
While this is shaping up to be another frugal year for the Senators, they won’t have any trouble reaching the floor.
Since the season ended, the Senators have added the salaries of defenceman Mike Lundin ($1.15 million), defenceman Marc Methot ($3 million), and forward Guillaume Latendresse ($2 million), and Erik Karlsson’s salary-cap hit has gone to $6.5 million from $1.3 million.
Also, even if Daniel Alfredsson retires, the Senators are still on the hook for his $4.875 million cap hit, because he agreed to his four-year, $19.5 million contract after he turned 35 (he will be paid just $1 million if he plays).
But they’ve finished paying buyouts to Ray Emery ($562,500), Daniel Alfredsson ($700,000, to accommodate unexercised options), and Jonathan Cheechoo ($1.166), and they’ve lost the contracts of Filip Kuba ($3.7 million), Matt Carkner ($700,000), Nick Foligno ($1.2 million), Jesse Winchester ($750,000), and Zenon Konopka ($700,000).
Now, with 19 players signed, they have four spots to fill.
Still unsigned are forwards Jim O’Brien and Kaspars Daugavins (who is taking the team to arbitration).
If they are re-signed and make the NHL roster next season — which might be a stretch considering the talent in front of them — they could add between $1.5 million and $2 million to the cap.
Then there are a number of promising young players vying for a spot: Mika Zibanejad ($1.74 million), Jakob Silfverberg ($900,000), Mark Stone ($873,000), Patrick Wiercioch ($875,000), and Mark Borowiecki ($610,000).
In the time it takes for owner Eugene Melnyk to take his wallet out of his pocket, the Senators would be well past the floor.
From his summer cottage on a brief vacation, general manager Bryan Murray said he likes the position he’s in.
He’s not worried about reaching the floor and has a lot of flexibility, suggesting he’s not done making moves.
“This position allows for options going forward, a trade or a spot for a prospect,” he said.
The collective bargaining agreement, of course, provides remedies for teams that deliberating try to circumvent the cap, by either spending too much or too little.
It’s a bit of a delicate dance to get there, though.
If the NHL and NHLPA decide the breach is worth fighting over, an arbitrator is appointed to determine if the circumvention was deliberate.
If the decision is that it was, penalties are at the commissioner’s discretion.
No team has yet to be penalized for not reaching the cap floor, according to the NHL.
But teams have been punished for trying to get around it, most notably the New Jersey Devils for offering a 17-year, $102 million contract to Ilya Kovalchuk in July 2010.
Independent arbitrator Richard Bloch ruled that deal attempted to circumvent the cap.
The heavily front-loaded deal had Kovalchuk earning $95 million over the first 10 years of the deal, but only $7 million over the final seven seasons, reducing the cost against the salary cap to $6 million per year.
If the deal had been allowed, Kovalchuk would have been 44 when the contract expired.
The NHL eventually approved a second 15-year, $100 million contract, but not before both sides made concessions about long-term contracts and how they are counted against the cap.
The floor is expected to be an issue between the NHL and NHLPA during negotiations for the new collective bargaining agreement.
Small-market teams complain that it is too expensive for them.
As an example, they point out that next year’s floor of $54.2 million will be considerably higher than the cap itself was in its first season, 2005-06: $39 million.
Scrap the cap. End of problem.
No, not scarp the cap. It will pinch smaller markets out of the league, Ottawa included.
Put a limit on how much a player can earn per season and how long they can be signed for. I.e no contracts longer than 5 or 7 years. Have a sliding pay scale that’s determined on a players ability and performance on the ice.
Look even Foligno just got a 9.25 mil deal for 3 years and the guy scored 11 goals on goalies this year.
It’s the ridiculous amount of money fed to bottom feeding NHL players. Put a stop to the greed and allow small markets to be competitive.
NTC/NMC shouldn’t be tossed around that lightly either, not every player should be eligible to demand an NTC/NMC.
I sincerely hope the CBA cracks down on these ridiculous contracts and demands from the players!
The cap is one of the best things that has happened to hockey.
but beginning of many big problems which lead to the cap
The cap is the only reason I started watching hockey again. Without the cap small market teams were basically acting as farm teams for big spenders like the NY Rangers and Red Wings. It was absolutely terrible, and felt a lot like Baseball where the Yankees and Red Sox are perpetually in the playoffs while others teams wont get a whiff.
What they need to do, but wont, is engage in cost control so that the fans aren’t fleeced continually. All of the discussion will be about whether the split is 48.52 or 50/50, but that comes with the fans continuing to absorb the continual increase in costs. It is a huge shame that there is no fan representation at the meetings, and no leverage to say “if you don’t drop gate prices by 50% and take less money all the way around we’ll stop watching and there will be no profits for anyone.” But that is just a dream of mine, and it will never ever happen.
Stefan – I think your idea is an excellent one for a number of reasons.
First of all, limiting ticket prices league-wide would slow the growth of revenue and reduce the disparity between teams that sell out a year in advance and teams that play to half empty arenas.
Secondly, it would go a long way to sustaining a fan base for the sport. Neither of my kids played hockey and the oldest has almost no interest in it. When he was little I couldn’t afford to take him to more than a few games a year and he never developed a passion for the sport. The last time I took my youngest to a game we sat in 2nd level seats and the outing cost me over $300. Needless to say we won’t be going to many more games in the future.
Lastly, limiting ticket prices would save the sport from the half-wits who are primarily responsible for these financial crises: the GM’s. Every time a Sather, a Millbury or a Burke wastes millions to overpay a player his bosses hike ticket prices to wipe out the GM’s blunder. If owners had to pay for their mistakes in real money they might stop driving salaries through the roof.
If the Sens are concerned about reaching the cap floor, they can always make a trade for Scott Gomez. I’m sure the Habs will trade him for next to nothing, or best offer.
Give the extra cap money to Afredsson, he is the ultimate money player and he deserves it.
No way. I don’t think he deserves it. Who knows how good he’ll be next year. I know he’s a good player, but once you’re 40, it gets a little tougher to play than it was before. Maybe give him an extra $1m or so, but use that money to attract free agents such as Shane Doan.
The fact is that the cap, which was supposed to level the playing field, penalizes small market teams more than it limits big market teams. Because it’s based on league revenues (which are driven up by ridiculous ticket prices in places like Toronto and New York), and league revenues continue to rise, the disconnect just takes longer to be felt. A $54 million cap floor is completely unrealistic in places like Florida and Phoenix where revenues are never going to cover expenses. A steadily rising cap floor also bodes ill for places like Winnipeg whose 15,000 seat arena can not possibly generate enough revenue. The solution, whether people like it or not, is retraction. Bettman did his best to spread the game and thereby justify the kind of TV contract that permits a more level playing field in the NFL. But the reality is that hockey will never catch on in the southern states because kids simply can’t grow up playing the sport. Retract the league or move the teams North to markets that can genuinely sustain them. Anything else is just a slow and lingering death that will do more harm to the sport than good.
“No team has yet to be penalized”….
Come on Citizen, I’d expect this from the Sun, but not from you.
I wont buy tickets ,pay for parking or buy a $4.00 Tim Hortons. I wont support over paid athletes. Its ridiculous.I love hockey but i will not spend my hard earned money on these millionaires.
I urge all reasonable people to boycott spending their hard earned money on ‘professional’ sports