My selective and frugal approach to considering free agent options at forward yielded a reasonable amount of backlash via comments and a couple emails.
You can find that Carolina Hurricanes blog HERE.
I also wrote a more targeted post on the Hurricanes salary cap situation HERE.
As a quick starting point for figures:
–The Canes sit at about $40 million right now with 1 goalie, 7 forwards (only counting likely NHL sure things) and 6 defensemen under contract. Victor Rask and Ryan Murphy who are both restricted free agents would add about $4-5 million to that total.
–The salary cap minimum/floor will be about $55 million, so the Canes need to spend at least $15 million and likely about $10-11 million after Rask and Murphy.
–The salary cap ceiling is expected to be $74-75 million.
–Last season the Canes started the season with about $65 million in salary (cap not actual).
With that, I ask 2 related questions (polls below): 1-What WILL Ron Francis’ budget be? 2-What SHOULD it be?
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Go Canes!
I’m with you in that I think he will and should spend into the low sixties. But I do have a bit of a problem with the wording of your poll…I don’t think it is the “cap” we should be talking about but the actual paid salary that matters more to this club. Sure, we have to meet the minimum cap and we have to stay below the cap max, but what will drive Ron’s decisions will be payroll, not cap. For example, Faulk’s cap hit this year will still be $4.833M but his payroll jumps from $3.5M to $5.5M this year. That makes a difference to the club and what Ron will do. Add to issues like that, what if Ron makes a trade with the Red Wings to take on Datsyuk’s cap hit if he goes back to Russia as is possible? The cap hit would be $7.5M, but the payroll cost would be nothing. I could see Ron doing that, and it would totally change the place I would vote in your poll, without actually affecting Ron’s plan to bring in players.
Good points and just highlights the limitations that us fans have in considering this issue.
Completely agree. Cap hit really does not matter for Canes – they will not come close to hitting it. Actual salary does matter.
In terms of additional spending for new players the 2 would usually be fairly equal unless the Canes add a player via trade with a frontloaded/backloaded contract. And an anomaly Datsyuk obviously would not impact how much additional budget Francis has left.
Re. Datsyuk, or other possble, similar situations… early summer numbers are likely temporary, and subject to change. At the beginning of Oct. They should be nearly finalized, so what you see is what you get! By then I’d expect a cap hit of 68-71M. Can’t win being cheap!
Also good points. You win with good players that play well together. Some low cost players play on teams that are in the playoffs year after year and Perform in a certain role (example, Miller for Detroit,4th line penalty killer). Other players are expected to be the primary scorers and others secondary scorers. Whatever it costs, you need them all along with a good defense and solid goal tending.
I estimate the salary cap expenditure by the Canes will be around $62-$63 million with the off chance that it could go as high as $67. Personally, I don’t think GMRF has to spend more that $63 million as I think Rask gets a longer term deal in the $4.2-$4.4 million range. I think Murphy gets traded but if not, he merely gets qualified and is almost guaranteed to be the #7 defenseman. Regardless qualifying Murph only costs us in the neighborhood of $950,000. My take is Ronnie then has somewhere between $5.5 million to $6.75 million for a Top 6 forward. He’s got $4.5 – $5 million for another Top 9 forward. Aho signs an ELC for $925,000 and Nash (or a Checker) fills out the 4th line for $1 -$1.3 million. 13th forward is signed for about $700,000 at most.
At the high end of those ranges that gets the Canes to $20.25. He trades for Thomas Greiss at $1.5 million and the Canes have a team salary cap hit of about $61.75. Call it a day Ronnie.