After the recent acquisition of Mason Marchment from the Seattle Kraken by the Columbus Blue Jackets and Charlie Coyle alongside Miles Wood this summer, the Blue Jackets appear focused on adding talent and saving on the internal team budget despite the salary cap hit.
Marchment sits at a $4.5M hit on the books, but Columbus is only responsible for $1.5M of the remaining financials due to the recent acquisition.
Charlie Coyle has a cap hit of $5.25M but Columbus only has to pay $4.5M from the front loaded deal Boston agreed to with the former Wild forward in 2020.
Miles Wood is only owed $8.5M of his front loaded contract by the Jackets through 2029 as Colorado paid the first $6.5M in his first two seasons of his contract agreement with the Avalanche.
Offense-men
Keifer Sherwood (Vancouver)
The pending UFA and Columbus native makes $1.5M dollars against the cap and was already paid a $525K signing bonus and a base of $775K for the season.
Kevin Hayes (Pittsburgh)
A close friend to the Gaudreau family, the Hawks’ first round pick was acquired by Pittsburgh at half salary retained from the St Louis Blues. His $7.142M cap hit originally signed with Philadelphia only is a $3.57M hit on the books for the remainder of the season, and had a $1.25M signing bonus paid on his front loaded and bonus salary.
Teddy Bleuger (Vancouver)
With a base salary of $775K and already having a performance bonus of $875K paid toward his $1.8M cap hit, the former Penguin forward and pending UFA could reunite with ZAR.
Defensemen
Connor Murphy (Chicago)
The Dublin, Ohio born defender had a $1M signing bonus paid on July 1. The rental carries a cap hit of $4.4M but only has a base salary this season of $2.65M remaining.
Brett Kulak (Pittsburgh)
The recently acquired Penguins’ defender is a rental that could be flipped for a second rounder at the deadline. After two recent cup finals appearances, he carries a $2.25M salary despite being a $2.75M hit, a savings of $500K in salary.
Jamie Oleskiak (Seattle)
The sizable defender has a backloaded contract with a $3.75M base despite a $4.6M cap hit.
Goaltenders
Laurent Brossoit (Chicago)
The bonus structure of the pending free agent provides him with a base salary of $2.3M this season. The goalie has not played a single game for the Hawks despite being signed in 2024, and his representatives already had a chance to find a new home for Brossoit.
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