Bouchard probably won’t be in it, Khaira, and Yamamoto will be playing in the oilers roster this year.

I covered that in the preamble.

They're on the taxi squad to make the cap fit to be compliant on day one before assigning Klefbom to the LTIR.

What the fu*k dude

Huh what is this. Barrie on the 1st pair, are you anti playoffs? Yamamoto has to start on the Oiler roster.

It’s just a paper transaction with yam to get under the cap to enter the season then klef moves to ltir and yam brought in before game one.

Bouch I could see start in the taxi squad given sone concerns of early injuries. For veterans like larsson and Russell haven’t played much since March could see pulled groins those types of injuries. If everyone gets started and avoids that early on I could see bouch sent to Bakersfield when their season starts. Benson and Mcloed are in a very similar situation.

You're better off sending guys like Chiasson and Neal and Khaira and Russell to the taxi squad to start the season - you'll save more against the cap than sending Yamamoto et al down.

Unless Bouchard blows the doors off in camp, he'll start on the taxi squad. The AHL season is probably not starting until mid-February at the earliest and the border closure probably means guys like Bouchard won't be sent there even at that time.

Holland won’t want a young guy like bouch sit for extended period of time so starts with taxi squad for a month if the team avoids injury bug he gets sent down when ahl fires it’s season up. Timing of ahl season if it actually happens as planned is really handy in this case provides time for bouch to either steal a job or provide a safety net in the event of injuries before any decision needs to be made. Benson contract wise makes sense to keep with taxi squad he’s coming off his elc and needs to be in the mix before waivers become an issue with him. Mcloed is the biggest wildcard in my opinion.

I honestly don’t know how taxi squad really works. Is waivers involved in sending players there the cap hits only come into effect once activated?

Wouldn't surprise me if some of those guys get re-assigned to Europe. And by the time the AHL season rolls around (if it does), I think Bouchard will be getting games in the NHL and proving his worth.

Same as sending them to the AHL as far as the cap is concerned. Like this:

https://www.capfriendly.com/forums/thread/402614

That’s what I assumed so sending players like Neal will still have a hefty hit against the cap

Sure, but you save $1.075M against the cap with guys like Neal, Chiasson, Russell and Khaira. That starts to add up.

If you look at how the NFL went with injuries and no training camp, expect heaps of injuries this year.

Neal and Russell almost certainly going to be playing day one. That leaves jj and chiasson which is doable but not sure gaining anything since can’t spend that cap in the event they need to be activated. Does waivers come into play with moving to taxi squad just like an ahl assignment? If so that needs to be considered as well.

Certainly many of the veterans haven’t played outside of a handful of games since March I expect to see lots of pulled groins those types of rusty injuries. They can be in shape but can’t create a simulation for game like action going to be very tough on guys like larsson.

Yes, waivers come into play, but there's zero chance anyone is going to pluck those guys off waivers. And placing them on the taxi squad for day 1 doesn't mean they can't play - they just can't be activated to play until Klefbom has been placed on LTIR. And yes you can activate them later - you'll have a $4.167M cushion from Klefbom's LTIR.

Khaira was already sent down for day one cap compliance.

Barrie has a career of results that show he's done well playing ~30% at 5v5 against elites that disagree with your statement. He had one bad half season playing for the TML under Babcock, then the results turned around when O'Keefe took over.

Barrie didn't sign here to play 3rd pair with Kris "Starfish" Russell. He's going to be feeding Connor and Leon sauce on the tape as they're transitioning north through the neutral zone all season long.

Also, the preamble covers why KY is on the taxi squad -- day one roster cap compliance.

Bouchard is 4RD so he'll start on the taxi squad -- especially since he's waiver exempt. He's going to play a substantial number of games, either due to injuries/slumps or on merit by forcing the issue.

McLeod has virtually no shot at a roster spot. He's best served playing all year in Europe, or the AHL if/when they get up to speed. RMc won't begin to enter the conversation until next season, at the earliest.

The savings only materialize if the replacement players' AAV is <$1.075M.

Point of my roster was to show it's unnecessary to demote (even just on paper) veterans like Neal, Kassian, Chaisson or Smith to be cap compliant on day one.


To be fair the sticky wicket comes along if guys with performance bonuses get sent down, since (to my understanding) bonuses must be accounted for in-season once recalled as opposed to in the off-season as usual so it's essentially a small cap penalty.