Quoting: ChiHawk
1. Cap will not be that high
2. Kap will sign for around $3.5M, if not Leafs will have to let him walk. There is definitely not a chance he takes $2.7M, that will result in the league stepping in for arbitration and ironically, Dzingel with similar numbers and age, will be signed in the off season as a UFA and likely command around $3.5M to $4M give or take.
3. Most importantly, you need to understand how LITR works. You can read up on it on this website. You can just LITR 100% of the player salary prior to the season starting. The Leafs must be cap compliant prior to day 1 of the season. LITR, for full relief, doesn't happen until the 1st day of the season. There is a percentage of overage allowed but it's not even close to the $5M of Horton's cap hit. As a Hawks fan, we know this from the Hossa situation. This has a huge impact on roughly $3.5m they need to have available going into the start of the season. See that you have a blog and you have a lot of good logic on it, so no offense, but a strong suggestion would be that you fully understand the LITR process if you want people to take your blog seriously.
- On the Salary Cap, reports from the Florida Governor's meeting put the range at between $81.4 and $85.4 (ink in blog).
I took a little under the mid-point but there are those who believe that could be high, we'll have to wait and see.
- You don't think a bridge deal at 2-3 years for Kapanen for $2.7 is realistic? I looked at Ondrej Kase in blog. - both RFA's same draft year, Kase put up good numbers. Dzingel is a UFA with more bargaining power.
- Thanks for reminder on some of the LTIR details, when I did this I confess I took the easy route but I did acknowledge in the blog that any inefficiency by Leafs in using LTIR would hit that $3M reserve I had allocated at RD.
Last season the Leafs did implement LTIR right away (1st or 2nd day?) and did benefit from *most* of the $5.3M in Horton's hit (roughly $5M as I recall). I believe the offseason LTIR buffer is not an issue and would not be a problem, based on my recall of discussions here last season and CF's updated details. Can you explain that more?
Thanks for feedback, this is very helpful.