After next season, we have a bunch of key players hitting RFA or UFA status, and many will be due raises. That includes Stoll, Williams, Muzzin, and Martinez. We will have to make room to accommodate them, and then the year following that Kopitar's contract is up. He will most certainly command a big raise, and we must pay him basically whatever he asks for. If we win the Cup next year and Kopitar has a year and playoff with a similar or better performance--not exactly likely, but not entirely unlikely either--then he could go into contract negotiations as arguably the single most important player on the roster.
So, yeah, cap space will be important in the next few years.
This season the cap is expected to go to roughly $71 million. Assuming a similar jump the next off-season, we are talking a cap of roughly $77.5 million.
If King's cap hit goes to $1.7 million, Gabby is $6 million, McNabb is say $1 million and we either reup Mitchell or replace him for his $3.5 million cap hit, we'll be at a overall cap hit of $70.2 million roughly.
That'll leave roughly $7.3 million (plus their current cap hits) to resign Stoll, Williams, Muzzin and Martinez as well as Jones, Regehr, Toffoli, Clifford, Pearson and Nolan.
Of that group, who is really likely to need a raise? Stoll and Regehr, certainly not. Regehr is likely worth his current $3 million cap hit, but not a raise and Stoll really should get a salary decrease, like he did following his last contract. I like Stoll a lot but he's a character guy who is good at checking and faceoffs, something that's worth in the $2.5 million range, but let's say we give him $2.9 million simply to not disrupt team chemistry.
Nolan and Clifford would have a hard time arguing for much if any cap hit increase either.
Williams meanwhile will be nearly 35 and as great as that Conn Smythe trophy is, he also only had 43 points this season and hasn't top 60 points in a season in nearly a decade. I can't see Williams costing much more than $4 million unless he repeats his playoff performance again next year and can hit UFA off a monster boon.
I expect Toffoli and Pearson to see some raise as well, but not much unless one of them really breaks out. A bridge contract of two years paying just over $1 million a year seems more likely, again barring either of them bursting out for a huge season. Don't forget DL does more bridge deals than long term deals, see O'Sullivan, Voynov, Johnson, Quick, Bernier, I believe Cammalleri as well. Other than a few guys like Doughty, when you come off your ELC or even your second contract DL makes you earn a big riase or long term deal. Pearson and Toffoli shouldn't have arbitration rigts either so there's no leverage unless someone gives a RFA offer, and likely neither will even reach free agency.
So it really comes down to Martinez and Muzzin and again, is this really about performance or is it cup hangover? Both were good in the playoffs but they combined for 46 points in the regular season and based off regular season play, neither is worth $4 million like I've heard bantied about here. If they can play in the regular season like they did in the playoffs then maybe, but we've seen a guy do great in the playoffs then turn in a piss poor year the next season before, look at Martinez following the 2012 playoffs for example.
It isn't as dire as everyone thinks.
Austrian Coach Shocked by Team's Heavy Partying before Final Loss
Vanek was captain of the Austrian Olympic team that partied until 6:00 AM before the night before getting blown out by Kopitar's Slovenia team, 4 - 0.
The knock I'd always heard on Gaborik was his durability, not his character.
Cool, didn't know this. Thanks.
(joke... but could totally see this) King/Nolan/... Clifford gets 2 games.... This is the regular season Kings we're talking about.
I rather have him have a bad year and the kings win the cup, than have him have a great year and the kings fail in the playoffs.
