BoredBrandonPridham
Registered User
- Aug 9, 2011
- 7,573
- 4,061
Hypothetical scenario, is it possible for a club to agree w/ a player to cancel a current ELC and sign an RFA contract immediately?
Obviously the player would like this more if it means they get paid more for a couple years of their ELC. A team could like it more if the player is willing to "stretch" the gains off the ELC over the duration of their contract.
Leafs aren't all *that* worried about cap space now, especially with so much coming off the books after this season, but they will start to have to crunch down when they're contending for the cup, and when Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Zaitsev, Brown are all into their RFAs.
By taking on extra salary earlier in their ELCs with a slightly cheaper (but longer duration) RFA contract where the player makes the same (or more money) than they would if they had stayed 2 more years on their ELC, you can dampen the cap burden for ~6 years on those 5 players. I'm not saying you'd want to do this for every player, but if you're confident a player will be worth the contract (e.g., Matthews, Marner...), is it technically possible?
Example:
Matthews following conventional 3yr ELC then an RFA contract:
ELC years 2 & 3 = 3.7 x 2 (cap hit 3.7)
RFA years 1 - 6 = 7.5 x 6 (cap hit 7.5)
= 52.4m over 8yrs
Matthews following an early ELC termination to RFA contract:
RFA years 1 - 8 = 6.55m x 8 (cap hit 6.55)
= 52.4m over 8yrs
Matthews makes the same money, he gets some of it earlier (better for him!), and Leafs shave $1m off the cap in years 3-8 when they presumably need it more than in the next 2yrs.
Obviously the player would like this more if it means they get paid more for a couple years of their ELC. A team could like it more if the player is willing to "stretch" the gains off the ELC over the duration of their contract.
Leafs aren't all *that* worried about cap space now, especially with so much coming off the books after this season, but they will start to have to crunch down when they're contending for the cup, and when Matthews, Marner, Nylander, Zaitsev, Brown are all into their RFAs.
By taking on extra salary earlier in their ELCs with a slightly cheaper (but longer duration) RFA contract where the player makes the same (or more money) than they would if they had stayed 2 more years on their ELC, you can dampen the cap burden for ~6 years on those 5 players. I'm not saying you'd want to do this for every player, but if you're confident a player will be worth the contract (e.g., Matthews, Marner...), is it technically possible?
Example:
Matthews following conventional 3yr ELC then an RFA contract:
ELC years 2 & 3 = 3.7 x 2 (cap hit 3.7)
RFA years 1 - 6 = 7.5 x 6 (cap hit 7.5)
= 52.4m over 8yrs
Matthews following an early ELC termination to RFA contract:
RFA years 1 - 8 = 6.55m x 8 (cap hit 6.55)
= 52.4m over 8yrs
Matthews makes the same money, he gets some of it earlier (better for him!), and Leafs shave $1m off the cap in years 3-8 when they presumably need it more than in the next 2yrs.