Weaponizing cap space is about actual cost of money. Weber's contract is almost certainly fully insured or Arizona never would have taken it on in the first place. Utah dumped it because they didn't want to operate in LTIR next year
It's also prudent to note that Weber's contract was MASSIVELY front loaded. When AZ took on the contract his annual salary was down to 3m (and most of that had been paid already) and since then the annual salary has dropped to 1m. Vegas is the only team that took on is contract that paid any real amount of money to Weber.
With every signing you listed inputted, Calgary still has $17.8M in cap space next season according to Puckpedia with the following starting roster left to fill out:
We also get to show them that the C of Red is way better than the White Out
Yes, LTIR counts against the cap. LTIR is only a tool that allows teams to exceed the cap when there are long-term injuries, so they can bring in replacements
It's still 8 million against the cap next year, when we have to re-sign or extend Zary, Wolf, Coronato, Frost, and Bahl. We also have Kirkland, Rooney, Mantha coming off, which means we only have 11 forwards after the re-sign/extended group. Realistically one or maybe two prospects come up, so that's fine. We also have Hanley and Vladar coming off, which means we need a goaltender and a D coming up. D should be okay, realistically we sign one second pairing D, and call up one of the younger guys so we can keep Bean and Miro as 7th/8th. And we 100% need a goaltender somewhere (unless y'all really think Cooley/Murphy/Ignatiew are NHL ready, which I do not). 8 mil really hinders that ability, especially if we try for longer term contracts on guys like Zary/Wolf/Coronato instead of bridge deals.
I think we are on the same page. I don't think Calgary was interested in taking on Weber's contract. I do think it made a lot of sense for Chicago to take on since it helps them reach the floor.
I'm not typing this to agree or disagree. Just putting numbers out there for everyone to see. RFA/UFA estimates are in red.
| LEFT WNG | CENTER | RIGHT WING | CAP FOR LINE |
|---|---|---|---|
| Huberdeau 10,500,000 | Kadri 7,000,000 | Coronato EST: 4,000,000 | SIGNED: 17,500,00 INCL EST: 21,500,000 |
| Zary EST: 6,000,000 | Frost EST: 6,000,000 | Sharangovich 5,750.000 | SIGNED: 5,750,000 INCL EST: 17,750,000 |
| Farabee 5,000,000 | Backlund 4,500,000 | Coleman 4,900,000 | SIGNED: 14,400,000 |
| Lomberg 2,000,000 | ??? EST: 2,000,000 | Pospisil 1,000,000 | SIGNED 3,000,000 INCL EST: 5,000,000 |
| LFET DEFENSE | RIGHT DEFENSE | CAP FOR PAIR |
|---|---|---|
| ??? EST: 6,000,000 | Weegar 6,250,000 | SIGNED: 6,250,000 INCL EST: 12,250,000 |
| Bahl EST: 5,000,000 | Andersson 4,460,000 | SIGNED: 4,460,000 INCL EST: 9,460,000 |
| ??? EST: 2,000,000 | Pachal 1,187,500 | SIGNED: 1,187,500 INCL EST: 3,187,500 |
| EXTRA SKATER | EXTRA SKATER | EXTRA SKATER | TOTAL CAP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Klapka EST: 1,000,000 | Miromanov 1,250,000 | ??? EST: 1,500,000 | SIGNED: 1,250,000 INCL EST: 3,750,000 |
| STARTER | BACKUP | TOTAL CAP |
|---|---|---|
| Wolf 850,000 | ??? EST: 3,000,000 | SIGNED: 850,000 INCL EST: 3,850,000 |
Means we go go big game hunting in the off season if we want to. Not saying we will, but the flexibility is there to do it.
Think we are at the point where we have to honestly. We have players like Frost and Farabee who have shown flashes, and will probably be more productive with a training camp under their belt. Don’t think many people believe Zary is going to continue to be a 40 point player. Coronato and Wolf could have sophomore slumps, but they could just as easily build on their rookie seasons. The only UFA of value we have next year is Andersson, but selling him off is putting all our eggs in one basket as our plethora of defense prospects will likely replace a good portion of his value as soon as 2026-27.
It's 14.5m actually, but I get it, math is hard.
I didn't include the extra skater (1.5M)
Again, it was mostly about not targeting expensive players. But you are too busy being pedantic and trying to argue over literally nothing.
Why are you being so aggressive? All I'm doing is saying spending 14.5M on UFA's is not conservative. That is a fairly aggressive free agency. We can move on if this is a simple misunderstanding
I really think you need to move past 2010. 14.5m is a pretty average summer these days. Boston gave Zadorov and Lindholm almost 13m. Nashville who was aggressive spent over 20m on just 3 guys. Hell even we spent over 7m on Mantha, Lomberg and Bean and were one of the least active teams.
