Habster:
I hope Ray Shero (and/or his Capologist) is doing the math with the team’s cap space before he signs everybody to contracts or extensions.
If the Pens don’t think long term with their salary cap, then we could see another Tampa Bay situation where the team will be handcuffed to fill out the rest of their roster with good complimentary/supporting cast players.
For fun, let’s crunch some hypothetical and factual cap figures (I’ll only use contracts that go beyond next season):
See Penguins salary structure for more details: http://www.nhlscap.com/salarynumbers/pittsburgh.htm
Known:
Sidney Crosby…………………..$8.7 million cap hit per season until 2012-13
Sergei Gonchar………………….$5 million cap hit ” ” ” 20o9-10
Ryan Whitney……………………$4 million cap hit ” ” ” 2012-13
Hypothetical but could happen:
Evgeni Malkin……………………$8 million cap hit per season for 4-6 years???
Marian Hossa…………………….$8 million cap hit per season for 4-6 years???
Marc-Andre Fleury…………..$5 million ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ???
Jordan Staal………………………$4 million ” ” ” ” ” ” ” ???
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Total………………………………….$42.7 million cap hit per season for 8 players!!!!!
Depending on how high the NHL team salary cap is in a couple of years (and beyond), the Penguins will probably only have between $12-$16 million to fill out the remaining 12-15 roster spots. Certainly not enough money to find quality second and third line wingers as well as finding #3 and #4 defensemen.
The other concern will be the simple fact that NHL revenue could be stagnant and not have annual cap increases of $3-$5 million. The salary cap limit has increased each year since the lockout simply because of how low the intial cap amount was set at, it had no other way to go but up…….I hope for the Pens sake, the trend continues otherwise Ray Shero will have to part ways with some very talented, young players.
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