CBA Clarifications

[Taro T]

2 clarifications of things I have posted in the past 2 weeks about the CBA.

 

1. The Sabres CAN try to negotiate an extension to Chris Drury's contract at any time. they do not have to wait until January 1 to negotiate an extension. The January 1 contract negotiation moratorium only applies to 1 year deals. Since Chris is in the last year of a multiyear deal, the Sabres and Chris' Agent can negotiate whenever they so desire.

 

The Sabres realistically can't negotiate an extension until all their other players for this season are signed, though, because the $'s remaining in this season's cap and the $'s of contracts expiring next season dictate the amount of salary that can be "tagged" in the extended contract. Also, because an extension that provided for a raise (which is what he'd get) appears to cut into this season's cap $'s (have to look closer at "tagging" to determine exactly how it works), assuming a deal can be worked out midseason, it appears that it is in the team's best interest to wait to sign the player to an extension.

 

2. In a discussion with Shrader about Mogilny getting sent to the AHL, I stated that his salary didn't count against the Devils' salary cap last season. That was correct. That will still be correct for McGillis this year, but because Mogilny was over 35 when he signed his contract, this year's salary WILL count against the cap regardless of whether they trade him, play him, retire him, waive him, or drop him back to Albany. If he is sent to Albany the Devils will get $100k of relief from his salary, but that isn't much of a savings.

 

McGillis being sent to the minors will give the Devils cap relief because he wasn't 35 when he signed his contract last year.

[PTS]

Larry ... ummm I mean Dave B. Can you clarify this Total Team Cap Hit and Total Team Salary for a particular season. I see our cap hit is higher than our actual payroll. How does that work. I can't seem to find a rhyme or reason to it.

[Taro T]

Larry ... ummm I mean Dave B. Can you clarify this Total Team Cap Hit and Total Team Salary for a particular season. I see our cap hit is higher than our actual payroll. How does that work. I can't seem to find a rhyme or reason to it.

I will try.

 

The total team cap hit is the sum of the averaged player salaries over the life of their contracts. It also includes any buy out $'s due in a particular season. (As of now, since the Sabres have not bought out any contracts, the Sabres have $0 charged against the cap for buyouts.)

 

The total team salary is the actual $'s that the team will pay out in a particular season.

 

E.g. Max has a $10MM deal over 3 years that pays out $3, $3.5, and $3.5. Max's actual salary is $3MM this year and that is what he contributes to the total team salary. His average salary is $3.33MM and that is what his salary counts against the salary cap for each of the next 3 years.

 

If everyone else's contracts paid them the same amount of money in each year of their contract, then the Sabres would be able to actually spend $43.67MM instead of $44MM. This is because Because Max's actual salary is $0.33 MM less than his average salary and the salary cap is based on average salaries.

 

As it is, on the whole, the team's average salaries are currently running slightly more than $3MM over their actual salaries for '06-'07, so the Sabres actual spending cap (with 18 players signed) is slightly less than $41MM ($44MM minus $3MM).

 

Hope that helped, and don't call me Larry. :P