Speculation: Ryan Suter's performance bonuses

[Jared Dunn]

Noticed that Suter is one GP away from hitting the 2nd last of his many bonuses, and if he's flipped to a contender that essentially assures he gets the final one.

Wondering how the bonus payouts would work, is St. Louis responsible for 100% of them? Have to think Suter is available, but if an acquiring team is on the hook for any of his bonuses I would imagine that craters his value

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[The Nuge]

Iirc, it’s wherever the bonuses were hit, so the acquiring team would pay his 500k bonus and have it count against their cap

 

[StlBigFly]

I’m desperate for somebody to show me where I’m missing the answer:

I am irritated the CBA doesn’t seem to directly answer the question but article 50 is the place to be I feel. We need the details of a transfer of a spc with non elc performance bonus after the commencement of the season.

Here’s some cut and paste from cba article 50

In order for a Club to acquire a one-year SPC after the
commencement of a season (i.e., that is expiring at the conclusion
of the then-current League Year), the Club must have Payroll
Room equal to or in excess of the remaining Player Salary and
Bonuses to be earned by the Player under the SPC.

That section implies to me that the performance bonus is handled the same way normal compensation is … but I don’t like that it says “performance bonuses to be earned”. It isnt clear if the acquiring team has any responsibility for earned bonuses. Maybe not eh?

Maybe after Suter hits the payday he becomes a lot easier to trade? Seems like there would be language defining that the trading team had all the cap hit for the earned ones. I didn’t see it.

 

[AslanRH]

@mouser always has the answers

 

[WeWentBlues]

I'm not sure the Blues are sellers at this point but still would be curious to know the answer to this question.

Also, if the acquiring team is on the hook for bonuses, presumably if the Blues retained 50%, the % would also apply to bonuses carried into 25/26 season?

 

[ds774622]

I’m desperate for somebody to show me where I’m missing the answer:

I am irritated the CBA doesn’t seem to directly answer the question but article 50 is the place to be I feel. We need the details of a transfer of a spc with non elc performance bonus after the commencement of the season.

Here’s some cut and paste from cba article 50

In order for a Club to acquire a one-year SPC after the
commencement of a season (i.e., that is expiring at the conclusion
of the then-current League Year), the Club must have Payroll
Room equal to or in excess of the remaining Player Salary and
Bonuses to be earned by the Player under the SPC.

That section implies to me that the performance bonus is handled the same way normal compensation is … but I don’t like that it says “performance bonuses to be earned”. It isnt clear if the acquiring team has any responsibility for earned bonuses. Maybe not eh?

Maybe after Suter hits the payday he becomes a lot easier to trade? Seems like there would be language defining that the trading team had all the cap hit for the earned ones. I didn’t see it.

All good questions. The way I interpreted the language in the CBA is that all bonuses whether performance-based or awards-based are accounted for as a yearly accrual, to be paid after the season concludes. Regardless what I think, I'm hoping someone does know if the bonuses Suter has already hit have been paid, or will it be as a lump sum after the season ends?

Logically there has to be some kind of rider in trades of this nature where the responsibilities are outlined, right? Maybe the original team still pays the bonus(es) but they get a third instead of a fourth out of it.

 

[HolyGhost]

Noticed that Suter is one GP away from hitting the 2nd last of his many bonuses, and if he's flipped to a contender that essentially assures he gets the final one.

Wondering how the bonus payouts would work, is St. Louis responsible for 100% of them? Have to think Suter is available, but if an acquiring team is on the hook for any of his bonuses I would imagine that craters his value

whomever he plays with when he hits the bonus pays the bonus

 

[mouser]

Whichever team actually pays the earned performance bonuses is on the hook for the corresponding cap hit. The team paying the bonuses is not automatically the team the player was on when the bonuses were earned—it all depends on when the contract says the bonus will be paid. For example some past contracts have had the bonuses paid after the end of the regular season.

Teams can use the 7.5% performance bonus cushion to fit an acquired player with performance bonuses under the salary cap. However if the team acquiring such player is using LTIR then they cannot take advantage of the 7.5% bonus cushion and must have cap space for the complete contract with bonuses.

If a team retains 50% (or any %) of a contract then that team is responsible for the same % of the contract over the remaining lifetime of the contract. The % applies to all compensation including salary and bonuses.