There is never an issue finding a contract to take on to get to the cap floor. The cap floor is never an issue.
The cap floor is actively an issue for about 5 teams. I’d describe 3 of those situations as the cap floor being 100% impactful on any decision made. It isn’t so much about this year, it’s about how you bring up a bunch of young skaters while staying cap compliant.
Columbus has an active waiver. They also have like 8 pending ufas. I would describe their situation as a cap floor emergency.
I believe you’re discounting what happens when the league expands - the available player pool is very stressed right now.
The cap floor teams are bidding on contracts (Trouba). They’re going to have to pay to correct their situations.
They’re all trying to pay as little as possible, but everybody knows and nobody throws anybody a life jacket in this league.
Serious question — how does Anaheim need Gibson? He turns 32 this summer, still has 3.5 years left at a sizable cap hit, hasn’t put up a strong season since before COVID. He can’t be part of the long term plans for the Ducks.
I understand and expect that Anaheim will want a meaningful future building block if they’re asked to pay salary on him going forward. But “we need this player” seems like a bit of a disingenuous stance, at least from the outside looking in.
Somebodies have to be paid enough that Anaheim has a legal roster. If they cost assets to bring in, as Trouba did, then any move they choose has a cost attached.
I think Gibson can move but I think Anaheim can look at all their options and set a price that makes going down any one path worthwhile. They have the flexibility to do stuff, but if they have multiple options and can only choose 1; then the price to do any of them becomes the price to do the one that benefits Anaheim the most.
For example, what if they’re looking to flip Trouba - then they lose his cap hit next year and moving Gibson becomes a challenge. So whatever they could get for Trouba - you gotta beat that to get them to choose to move Gibson. Otherwise they’ll just move Trouba and not move Gibson.
