How the Flames can maximize Juuso Valimaki’s LTIR space
By Ryan Pike
4 years agoIt’s no secret that the Calgary Flames have a tight salary cap situation as they approach the opening of the 2019-20 season. Some expensive contract mistakes, a looming big contract extension and Juuso Valimaki’s injury have conspired against the Flames, to the point where there are some questions about how the Flames can squeeze under the $81.5 million cap.
Yeah, it’s gonna suck. But by using the long term injury reserve salary exemption they get due to Valimaki’s injury, there’s a way for the Flames to fit under the cap without trading anybody away.
Step 1: minimize cap space
There are two key things to remember about Valimaki and LTIR:
- The Flames have to be cap compliant with him on the roster when they file their roster with the league office on Oct. 1.
- Once he’s placed on LTIR, they can exceed the salary cap by the difference between his cap hit ($894,166) and whatever cap space they have when he’s placed on the reserve. They maximize their benefit by spending up to the cap.
Therefore, we need to put together a 20-man roster with the least cap space humanly possible to file with the league – which would give the Flames the most flexibility possible moving forward.
Here’s roster we came up with, presuming that Matthew Tkachuk signs for around $8.5 million and Andrew Mangiapane is locked for about $950,000:
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk – Mikael Backlund – Michael Frolik
Sam Bennett – Derek Ryan – Milan Lucic
Andrew Mangiapane – Mark Jankowski
Matthew Tkachuk – Mikael Backlund – Michael Frolik
Sam Bennett – Derek Ryan – Milan Lucic
Andrew Mangiapane – Mark Jankowski
Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin – Travis Hamonic
Juuso Valimaki – Rasmus Andersson
Brandon Davidson – Alexander Yelesin
Noah Hanifin – Travis Hamonic
Juuso Valimaki – Rasmus Andersson
Brandon Davidson – Alexander Yelesin
David Rittich
Cam Talbot
Cam Talbot
The dead money here includes burying Austin Czarnik in the AHL, as well as the buyouts for Troy Brouwer and Michael Stone. This leaves team with $791 in cap space, would give them ability to go over cap by up to $893,375.
Step 2: move bodies around
Okay, let’s make the team good.
Immediately, Valimaki is placed on the LTIR. Alexander Yelesin was only on the NHL roster to minimize cap space – his cap hit is $925,000 – and since he’s waiver exempt he can be sent right to the AHL. Coming up from the AHL are Dillon Dube and Oliver Kylington, who were both waiver exempt and able to be sent town prior to the roster deadline.
Here’s how the roster looks now:
Johnny Gaudreau – Sean Monahan – Elias Lindholm
Matthew Tkachuk – Mikael Backlund – Michael Frolik
Sam Bennett – Derek Ryan – Milan Lucic
Andrew Mangiapane – Mark Jankowski – Dillon Dube
Matthew Tkachuk – Mikael Backlund – Michael Frolik
Sam Bennett – Derek Ryan – Milan Lucic
Andrew Mangiapane – Mark Jankowski – Dillon Dube
Mark Giordano – TJ Brodie
Noah Hanifin – Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington – Rasmus Andersson
Brandon Davidson
Noah Hanifin – Travis Hamonic
Oliver Kylington – Rasmus Andersson
Brandon Davidson
David Rittich
Cam Talbot
Cam Talbot
This version of the team is over the cap by $583,375 (and have another $310,000 to work with) and have a decent-looking roster. They still need to make some moves for wiggle room, but this buys them some time.
In other words
The Flames have some cap challenges. They probably need to make some moves, because even in this scenario they can only afford to carry one extra healthy body at a time – that ain’t sustainable. But if they can’t make a trade immediately to open up some space, it’s not the end of the world. Valimaki’s LTIR status gives them a good amount of flexibility.
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