Wabit
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- May 23, 2016
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The punishment if you use overage space is that you lose that space next season, but if you exceed the overage limit (7.5% of the cap I believe) by season end then you are deemed not cap compliant for the year and subject to additional fines, forfeiture of draft picks, and even forfeiture of games.
$2MM is a big swing to have to manage in the event that he did hit it, it would possibly prevent us from playing other rookies with A class bonuses, signing a 1 year UFA deal or taking on a deadline acquisition if they also sought performance bonuses that are actually obtainable. Wallstedt, Rossi, Faber, Ohgren, Khusnutdiov and any other rookies we play or acquire would all contribute to that bonus overage pool, adding a Patrick Kane or David Perron on bonus laden contracts would put us dangerously close to the overage limits if they all hit.
That 7.5% is $6.6m. So every ELC would need to hit their max along with Yurov and MN still doesn't come close to that. MN would also need to be right at the cap or using LTIR to go over the cap.
35+ 1 year contracts, ELC, and injury cases (rare) are the only contract that have bonuses available. It doesn't prevent the team from really doing anything, unless the players are hitting their bonuses.
The B bonuses are so out of reach for a FWD that they are pretty meaningless to be a throw in for a contract:
"B" Level Bonuses
"B" Bonuses are worth a maximum of $2 Million (up to $2.5M for players drafted in 2022 and later), and the full amount of the bonus is awarded if any of the following is achieved:
-Forwards: Top Ten in NHL Forward Goals, Assists, points, or points per game (min 42 GP)
-Win any of the following trophies: Hart, Selke, Richard, Conn Smythe, Norris
-1st or 2nd team All-Star
For reference this year 10th in FWD stats was 44g, 63a, 98p, or 1.27p/g. This is a Kaprizov or better player that makes these numbers. If an ELC contract is making those stats then they are more than worth the $2m bonus they would be due.
As far as signing a 35+ 1 year with a heavy bonus structure, this is GMBG in charge, he doesn't even give out signing bonuses. He'd just overpay them for the whole season and call it good. He's also only traded ever for bottom of the roster players, so I don't have any concerns about him trading for a rental that would be getting a lot of bonuses.
As far as taking a dead cap hit into the next season for players hitting bonuses. He had no problem with 8 years of dead cap due to buyouts. Heck MN will still have $1.67m for 4 more seasons in dead cap after the big cap hit ends.