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Cap Updates [Part II]

October 11, 2008, 11:46 AM ET [ Comments]

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I held off posting hoping to get a complete answer to something, but in its absence I'll move ahead - if I get it, I'll post an update with that explanation.

A few clarifications from the NHL’s release on each team’s opening day roster:

1. A few of the players listed on IR are incorrect. Calgary does not have Brent Krahn and David Moss on IR; Krahn is not under contract to the Flames, Moss is listed twice. NY Rangers do not have Joe Barnes on IR; he was definitely assigned to the AHL. I suspect the league simply pasted data into last year’s release and didn’t clear out last year’s information, and in each case these players were still present.
2. Players on “Injured Non-Roster” are not listed. This includes [but is not limited to] Justin Williams [CAR], Ryan Whitney [PIT], Erik Johnson [STL] and Jeff Halpern [T.B].
3. The rosters listed do not include transactions from Thursday; these appear to be the rosters submitted to the league on Wednesday.

I previously mentioned that I wasn’t sure about the cap position of several teams, and that I was working to understand what was going on. Right now, I have a partial solution which I’m working on confirming.

The confusion started on Tuesday when Bruce MacLeod at Red Wings Corner. made the following comment:
Just to highlight a point already made about Jimmy Howard -- he will count against the Red Wings' salary cap, but not at full rate.

Howard, who was slated to go to Grand Rapids, will remain with the Red Wings until he's ready to return from a broken finger. Injured players cannot be sent down. It's a CBA feature that stops teams from cheating the cap by hiding injured players, who do count against the cap unless they're put on long-term injured reserve.

Howard's cap hit will be on a pro-rated basis (days with the Red Wings last winter) and it shouldn't be large enough to bump a player to Grand Rapids. Howard played just four games last season. He will, however, count against the 23-man roster limit.


For a while, it made absolutely no sense. Nothing in Article 50 of the CBA states that a player counts against the cap at a partial rate during the season, so I figured that MacLeod misunderstood something – until Ken Holland was reported to say the same thing about Howard and Darren McCarty.

I’ve seen team executives who were supposed to know things about the CBA garble parts of it and state items incorrectly, but seeing Holland report this, … well, surely Holland knows what he’s doing, right? So, I sent out a few e-mails and kicked the topic around with a few other people I consider to be pretty knowledgeable about the CBA – and the answer appears to reside in Article 15.6:

15.6 Any Player who is injured during Training Camp and who has qualified during the preceding season, including Playoffs, for at least fifty (50) games credit for the purposes of the Pension Plan or is on a one-way SPC, shall receive his Paragraph 1 NHL Salary and Signing Bonus until he receives appropriate medical clearance. All other Players will be paid a daily rate until they receive appropriate medical clearance, such rate to be determined as follows:
(a) For the immediately preceding season, determine the number of Regular Season days the Player spent on the Club Active Roster, Injured Reserve and/or Non-Roster and on a minor league club’s roster.
(b) The number of days the Player was on an NHL Club's Active Roster, Injured Reserve and/or Non-Roster or minor league roster is then divided by the total number of days in the immediately preceding Regular Season to obtain a fraction.
(c) The fraction obtained in (b) is then multiplied by the Player’s Paragraph 1 NHL Salary and Paragraph 1 Minor League Salary for the current season, as appropriate.


The explanation I’ve been given thus far is that a player on IR to start the season counts at his daily rate as described in 15.6 until he comes off IR, at which point he starts counting at his normal rate. Of course, Article 50 doesn’t state that this is the case, but this is apparently how the league is counting each player’s contribution to the cap.

And people wonder why the CBA is so difficult to interpret at times.

So … to know how much a player starting the season on IR and who was not on an NHL roster for at least 50 NHL games last season counts against the cap, you must know
1. How many days he was on an NHL and AHL roster, and
2. What his current NHL and AHL salaries are.

The NHL salary isn’t difficult to find, and the number of days he was on an NHL roster last year also isn’t difficult – but that “AHL salary” part is a problem since no one has a complete list of them.

Well, almost no one. Fortunately, I do have that information – and thus, I can calculate each team’s cap position much more accurately than anyone else that attempts to do this. [Of course, this also means the work I did for the last 3 years is off – but I’ll worry about that in November when I finally have much more time.] The figures I have on the "Team Numbers" page at NHLSCAP reflect many of those adjustments, but I'm still working to clarify a few players.

Players changing positions

Several players have switched positions this season, going from forward to defense. When Cap Central was originally set up, I used each player’s position as the NHL reported it; where players have switched positions, I’ve gone in and adjusted them. I’ve caught several of these, but if anyone notices that a player is still off let me know and I’ll make the adjustment.

Keep in mind, whether a player is listed as a LW or a RW is not as big of a deal IMO – yes, I know there are players listed as a center that play on the wing, and vice versa. Players may switch positions on a line from game-to-game, and trying to keep up with that could easily be a full-time job … and since I don’t get paid to do that, I’ll stick with the NHL’s listing when in doubt.


Next time, I’ll cover the currently popular question: “what happens if the cap declines?” with a complete explanation of what the CBA says and my own personal take. I’ll also start down the list of popular misconceptions and explain why they are incorrect.
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» Cap Updates [Part I]
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» Odds and Ends [or, What Took You So Long?]
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