Flames need to get creative to get underneath $81.5 million cap
By Ryan Pike
4 years agoAs the 2019 NHL Draft wound down on Saturday afternoon in Vancouver, the National Hockey League and the NHLPA released the 2019-20 salary cap framework in a press release. The cap ceiling was set at $81.5 million, just $2 million above the 2018-19 ceiling.
The Calgary Flames are one of several NHL clubs that will have to do some creative tinkering to wiggle under the salary cap while still fielding a competitive roster.
Here’s a quick snapshot of where the Flames sit heading into the week before free agency.
(The Evolving Wild folks updated their projections since we originally published this, so we refreshed our calculations as well.)
Goaltenders
- NHLers under contract: None
- Others under contract (4): Jon Gillies, Tyler Parsons, Nick Schneider, Artyom Zagidulin
- Restricted free agents (2): David Rittich, Mason McDonald
- Unsigned prospects (1): Dustin Wolf
The Flames need to sign Rittich, who will likely cost around $2.5 million on a short-term deal. They also need to find a backup, which might default to Gillies ($750,000) unless they can come up with a different solution.
Defensemen
- NHLers under contract (6): Mark Giordano ($6.75 million), Noah Hanifin ($4.95 million), TJ Brodie ($4.65 million), Travis Hamonic ($3.857 million), Michael Stone ($3.5 million), Rasmus Andersson ($755,833)
- Others under contract (5): Juuso Valimaki, Oliver Kylington, Carl-Johan Lerby, Alexander Yelesin, Andrew Nielsen
- Restricted free agents (2): Josh Healey, Rinat Valiev
- Unsigned juniors: None
The Flames have six NHL defenders signed and sign regular spots, so they’re close to set. That said, likely Valimaki and Kylington push for full-time employment. In the event the Flames look at bringing back Oscar Fantenberg, Evolving Wild projects his cap hit at around $927,000.
Forwards
- NHLers under contract (9): Johnny Gaudreau ($6.75 million), Sean Monahan ($6.375 million), James Neal ($5.75 million), Mikael Backlund ($5.35 million), Elias Lindholm ($4.85 million), Michael Frolik ($4.3 million), Derek Ryan ($3.125 million), Mark Jankowski ($1.675 million), Austin Czarnik ($1.25 million)
- Others under contract (9): Dillon Dube, Luke Philp, Eetu Tuulola, Adam Ruzicka, Martin Pospisil, Dmitry Zavgorodniy, Glenn Gawdin, Matthew Phillips, Buddy Robinson
- Restricted free agents (9): Andrew Mangiapane, Alan Quine, Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Spencer Foo, Curtis Lazar, Ryan Lomberg, Brett Pollock, Kerby Rychel
- Unsigned juniors (10): Emilio Pettersen, Lucas Feuk, Demetrious Koumontzis, Linus Lindstrom, Mitchell Mattson, Ilya Nikolayev, Josh Nodler, Jakob Pelletier, Milos Roman, Filip Sveningsson
- Buyouts (1): Troy Brouwer ($1.5 million)
Here’s where things get dicey. The Flames have nine players under active contracts, plus Mangiapane, Bennett and Tkachuk who are locked into NHL gigs. The challenge will be signing them and fitting everyone under the cap.
Evolving Wild’s projections for the trio are $909,000 (over two years) for Mangiapane, $2.8 million (over three years) for Bennett and $7.84 (over six years) for Tkachuk. But adding those fairly reasonable cap hits to their existing commitments leaves the club with just $1.963 million – and leaves their roster short a backup goalie, an extra defenseman and two extra forwards.
Possible solutions
One obvious solution is to buy out Stone. That would free up $2.333 million of space – bumping their cap space to $4.293 million – but would also require the club to replace him with someone as effective. (They would need to use that space to sign five players instead of four.)
Another option would be to sign Tkachuk to a bridge deal rather than a fully-fledged extension. This option carries risks for both sides, but would likely also drag his cap hit down to the vicinity of $6.75 to $7 million. This could save the Flames crucial cap space and give them some wiggle room to work with during the season.
As Pat Steinberg and I discussed on Sportsnet 960 The Fan on Saturday following the draft, the Flames aren’t in an ideal cap situation but it’s workable. A lot of other clubs are in much more dire situations and will have to make drastic moves to fit under the cap. The Flames just have to get a little bit creative.
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