It’s time again to update the cap numbers and financial situation now that shop appears to be all but closed up for the immediate future where the Dallas Stars are concerned.
Until Minnesota dedicated $15 million in cap hits for the next 13 years to just two players in a league with a cap likely to soon shrink, Dallas was the talk of the league for re-shaping their team the most dramatically. The Stars have added a hall of famer, a 77 point guy, a former 80 point scorer in Roy, and they need to re-sign their franchise cornerstone in RFA Jamie Benn to a new deal that could range anywhere from two to six or seven years.
Yet through all of those fairly high profile additions, Stars fans keep asking about the salary cap floor.
Don’t worry about the salary cap floor. Signing Jaromir Jagr was not something they needed to do to get there, as has been suggested.
Tom Gagalardi told the fanbase that “the uncertainty is now over.” Being a cap-floor team is now seemingly over as well, even if the merchandise at the proverbial supermarket was not as enticing this summer as many would have liked.
Updated charts and discussion follow the jump…
All numbers are presented in terms of MILLIONS($). All numbers are via Capgeek.
| Player | 2012-2013 | 2013-2014 | 2014-2015 | 2015-2016 |
| Jaromir Jagr | 4.55 | UFA | ||
| Ray Whitney | 4.5 | 4.5 | UFA | |
| Loui Eriksson | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.25 | 4.25 |
| Brenden Morrow | 4.1 | UFA | ||
| Derek Roy | 4 | UFA | ||
| Michael Ryder | 3.5 | UFA | ||
| Vernon Fiddler | 1.8 | 1.8 | ||
| Eric Nystrom | 1.4 | UFA | ||
| Tomas Vincour | 0.8 | RFA | ||
| Cody Eakin | 0.637778 | 0.637778 | RFA | |
| Tom Wandell | RFA | |||
| Jamie Benn | RFA | |||
| Ryan Garbutt | RFA | |||
| Defense | ||||
| Alex Goligoski | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.6 | 4.6 |
| Stephane Robidas | 3.3 | 3.3 | UFA | |
| Trevor Daley | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.3 | 3.3 |
| Aaron Rome | 1.5 | 1.5 | 1.5 | UFA |
| Brenden Dillon | 0.9 | 0.9 | RFA | |
| Mark Fistric | RFA | |||
| Philip Larsen | RFA | |||
| Kari Lehtonen | 3.55 | UFA | ||
| Richard Bachman | RFA | |||
| Eric Godard Buy Out Hit | 0.258333 | 0.233333 | ||
| Total Cap Hits | $46.95M | $25.02M | $13.65M | $12.15M |
Mistakes will happen, but isn’t that Eric Godard residual cap hit a much more palatable lump to swallow than the $1.9375M hit Sean Avery had on this list for the last three seasons?
You can see I’ve left off Reilly Smith, Scott Glennie and Toby Petersen, though all are officially on the NHL cap hit right now. It’s doubtful that two of the three will be when the season starts, and all three being in Cedar Park would not surprise anyone.
The cap floor is not far away. Benn’s contract, presumably to be signed in September or times beyond depending on CBA negotiations, will get them most of the way there and the contracts of Larsen, Bachman, Fistric and Wandell will easily put them over that $54.2M number (plus Matt Fraser, who is likely to get a real shot this fall), though it’s likely the real floor will be lower.
Consider as well the real salaries of some players. Kari Lehtonen (4.25M), Loui Eriksson (4.6M) and Derek Roy (5.5M) all will make considerably more than their cap hits indicate. Further proof that Tom Gaglardi, adding as much additional salary as he did, is dedicated to improving this team on the ice – Not worrying about the cap floor.
In reality the Stars seemed to have positioned themselves where neither the floor or the ceiling will affect things one way or the other for them. The Bruins, Blackhawks, and Wild of the world will fear cap reduction. Many others will fear penalties on possible cap circumvention contracts (Puck Daddy wrote this morning that there will be 20 such contracts with terms of over 9 years active in the league soon). The Stars have not tied themselves down in any such way. They believe they have building blocks to be successful and they have incredible flexibility to add to them.
Flexibility, as the Dallas Mavericks will tell you after the events of this week, doesn’t get you anywhere if you have nothing good to spend that extra money on. That doesn’t mean it’s not an advantageous position. If Tom Gaglardi’s proven anything in the last week it’s that he is willing to spend money (to lose money, even, given what is known, via the bankruptcy documents, about the financial efficacy of the club right now), and that he’s not going to paint himself into a corner with bad contracts.
Jamie Benn and Kari Lehtonen’s names will likely be added to this chart as long term commitments, but the future is wide open. They can make it anything they want to.
Don’t worry about the floor. Tom Gaglardi has shown us he’s not likely to be a “floor” kind of guy any time soon.