How are the Flames looking cap-wise?

7 years ago

The National Hockey League roster deadline is this coming Tuesday afternoon at 3 p.m. MT. At that time, teams must be both compliant with the league’s roster requirements and with their salary cap requirements.

With a few days and a few decisions remaining, how are the Calgary Flames looking in respect to their cap compliance?

Here’s a handy table with all current roster players in numerical order. All cap hits via General Fanager.

No.	Player	Pos.	Cap Hit
1	Brian Elliott	G	$2,500,000
3	Jyrki Jokipaka	D	$900,000
5	Mark Giordano	D	$6,750,000
6	Dennis Wideman	D	$5,250,000
7	T.J. Brodie	D	$4,650,400
8	Nicklas Grossmann	D	n/a (PTO)
10	Linden Vey	RW	$700,000
11	Mikael Backlund	C	$3,575,000
13	Johnny Gaudreau	LW	n/a (RFA)
15	Ladislav Smid	D	$3,500,000
17	Lance Bouma	LW	$2,200,000
18	Matt Stajan	C	$3,125,000
19	Matthew Tkachuk	LW	$925,000
20	Chris Higgins	LW	n/a (PTO)
21	Lauri Korpikoski	RW	n/a (PTO)
23	Sean Monahan	C	$6,375,000
25	Freddie Hamilton	RW	$613,500
27	Dougie Hamilton	D	$5,750,000
29	Deryk Engelland	D	$2,916,666
31	Chad Johnson	G	$1,700,000
36	Troy Brouwer	RW	$4,500,000
39	Alex Chiasson	RW	$800,000
52	Brandon Bollig	LW	$1,250,000
61	Brett Kulak	D	$656,666
67	Michael Frolik	RW	$4,300,000
79	Micheal Ferland	LW	$825,000
93	Sam Bennett	C	$925,000
—	Mason Raymond buyout	—	$1,050,000
—	2015-16 cap overage	—	$630,500
	TOTAL	—	$66,367,732
	Cap Space	—	$6,632,268

This roster includes 27 players – two goalies, nine defensemen and 16 forwards – but only 23 players with contracts (excluding Gaudreau, Grossmann, Higgins and Korpikoski. Fundamentally speaking, it’s a valid NHL roster.

Daniel Pribyl (knee) is likely going to be declared non-roster on Tuesday. Since he spent zero days in the NHL last season, none of his cap hit counts against the Flames’ total. He’s a non-issue.
Ladislav Smid (neck) is likely also going to be declared non-roster on Tuesday. Since he spent last season in the NHL, his entire cap hit could count unless the Flames decide to put him on the long-term injured reserve. For a multitude of reasons, I imagine they don’t want to do that: it’s essentially the payday loan of cap compliance in the sense that it gets you what you need, but it’s messy and complicated in an administrative sense, and really handcuffs your ability to do other things cap-wise. Long story short: it’s a mechanism they can use, but they probably don’t want to begin the season by using it to balance their books because it eliminates a lot of their flexibility.
Sam Bennett, Brett Kulak and Linden Vey are now waiver exempt – Vey because he cleared waivers. My current working theory is that when/if Gaudreau signs, Vey drops down to the AHL (and no other moves will be made). My reasoning is two-fold: Vey has Gaudreau’s locker stall and his likely linemates of Sean Monahan and Micheal Ferland. If you accept the premise that Vey is a placeholder body right now, functionally-speaking the Flames have $7,332,268 of cap space to use on Gaudreau… and short-term injury replacements throughout the year (barring other moves).

How are the Flames looking cap-wise?

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