Training camp is just over a month away and by now most NHL rosters are pretty solid. However, several teams still have lingering roster issues. With a cap of $56.7 million and a floor of $40.7 million, a handful of teams still lie outside of those parameters, making them ideal trading partners within that select few.
Ideally, you want to have at least $3-4 million of free cap space to give you some maneuverability during the year. However, all salary cap hits are pro-rated, meaning that if you grab a player at the trade deadline in late February, you've really only got to pay his salary for about six weeks or so, and his cap hit is pro-rated as such.
Let's take a quick look at who still has to make some moves before the season starts.
San Jose — The Sharks just inched over the cap because of two major blueline additions: Rob Blake and Dan Boyle. Boyle's in for the long haul, but Blake is essentially a defensive mercenary, coming in at one year for $5 million to provide insurance on the San Jose power play. This pushes the Sharks just over the cap (combined with RFA signings for Christian Ehrhoff, Ryane Clowe and Joe Pavelski), and part of this was offset by the trading of Craig Rivet. Who's left to cut? Look for GM Doug Wilson to beg anyone in the league to take defenseman Kyle McLaren and his $2.5 million cap hit. Anaheim — Scott Niedermayer is definitely playing this season and Corey Perry and Ryan Getzlaf get pretty new matching extensions. That's the good coming out of Anaheim. The bad? Even with the Todd Bertuzzi buyout, you've still got Mathieu Schneider with two more years averaging $5.6 million on the books even as he pushes 40-years-old. Teemu Selanne still hasn't signed either, so the Ducks are limited in their options until they can get someone to take Schneider off the books. Once that happens, the Ducks will have about $3 million in cap space. Depending on what Selanne signs for — if he re-signs — the Ducks will still have limited flexibility. Calgary — At about $1.5 million over the cap, one has to wonder just where all of Darryl Sutter's salary room is going to. You could point to players like Dion Phaneuf, Robyn Regehr, Jarome Iginla and Miikka Kiprusoff, but those are key cogs and not exactly players you want to fire off the chopping block. Instead, look at the overpaid blueliners causing cap issues: Rhett Warrener ($2.5 million, recently waived), Adrian Aucoin ($4 million) and Cory Sarich ($3.6 million). With Warrener and forward Marcus Nilson on waivers and Sarich hampered by a long-term contract, the logical move if Sutter wanted to create a significant amount of wiggle room would be to move Aucoin, who's only got one year left on his deal. Chicago — Don't blame Brian Campbell, he of the monster eight-year contract. Instead, Chicago's stuck with the most expensive goaltending duo in NHL history. Nikolai Khabibulin and Cristobal Huet take up almost $13 million in cap space, pushing the Blackhawks just over the salary cap. The logical move is to get rid of Khabibulin; he's only got one year left on his deal anyway. At this point, it'd make sense for GM Dale Tallon to just give away the Russian netminder for anything, even a box of chocolates or a bag of pucks. Considering Khabibulin's up-and-down performance since leaving Tampa Bay, along with his pending UFA status, there's simply no way Tallon will get anything of value for the guy. Philadelphia — The Flyers need to shed at least $1 million in payroll, but their options are limited. While defenseman Mike Rathje is still technically on the books, his long-term-injury status doesn't count him against the cap. Derian Hatcher is in the last year of his $3.5 million cap hit and sending him into exile might be a reasonable solution. The problem is that the Flyers have so much of their cap space tied into four forwards: Daniel Briere ($6.5 million), Mike Richards ($5.75 million), Simon Gagne ($5.25 million) and Jeff Carter ($5 million). Scott Hartnell's heavy contract ($4.2 million) takes its cap toll, too. The odd man out? Veteran Mike Knuble, who is still on the books for two more years at a cap hit of $2.8 million at age 35.
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Washington — What a difference a few years make. Right after the lockout, the Caps were NHL bottom feeders in terms of both salary and statistics. Now the Southeast champs are about $2 million over the cap. Washington's problems really lie in the center position, where they've got Michael Nylander (injured for most of last season and a cap hit of $4.875 million), Sergei Fedorov ($4 million at age 38) and Viktor Kozlov ($2.5 million). Considering rookie Nicklas Backstrom had an outstanding campaign, there's really no need for so many centers. At age 35, Nylander's long-term deal probably is the preferred contract to move, but Kozlov's will be the easiest to ship off. Los Angeles — With the salary floor at $40 million, the Los Angeles Kings still have about $10 million they need to spend. Considering that the Kings are thin on defense and still waiting for goaltending prospect Jonathan Bernier to develop, you'd think GM Dean Lombardi would kill two birds with one stone by grabbing Khabibulin, Schneider and either McLaren or Aucoin (or Rhett Warrener, who's still on waivers) to add experienced blueline depth.Some hockey minds believe that GMs like Chicago's Dale Tallon are still looking to get true trade value for their salary cap dumps, but GMs should focus on moving quickly rather than getting the best deal. Why? Take the sad story of Lou Lamoriello and Vladimir Malakhov. Malakhov, who had medical issues and was essentially done with the NHL, was still causing cap headaches for the post-lockout Devils. The solution? Trade Malakhov and a first-round pick for a borderline NHL player (Jim Fahey) and a player with no plans of returning to the NHL (Alex Korolyuk). That's right, Lamoriello was so stuck that he actually had to give away a first-round pick to fix his cap problems.
The moral of this tale? Act swiftly or else buyer beware.
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