Salary Cap Question

[Cavs019 710]

I'm doing a research project on the effects of the new CBA, and in compiling my data it's apparent that some teams in 2005-2006 were actually over the then 39 Million dollar cap. (NJD, Vancouver) Does anyone recall what the stipulations were that allowed this?

[Chadd 916]

It's a strange combination of what was actually paid and the average of the contract, total dollars divided by years. If you pay a guy a total of $20M over 5 years it counts as $4M per year, no matter how you actually break it down. Say $10M, 2.5M, 2.5M, 2.5M, 2.5M

Guys on IR for a long time or sent down to the minors are not counted against the cap. Plus, any players picked up over the course of the season only have the salary paid to them while they are with the team count against the cap.

[Ultimus 0]

if it is an incentive laden contract, the bonuses can be pushed to next year as well... a good example was Hasek, he signed for a ton less, but bonuses didn't count till the next year.

Also, a player over signed 35 will count against the cap either in the minors or on the IR.

To add on what Chadd said, teams with someone on the IR, are allowed to go over the cap to that players salary, another example of this was Jiri Fischer his contract was somewhere in the 1.3 million, he was on the long term IR and the Wings were allowed to go over the cap by that amount.

I think NJ got out of it because Mogilny went to the minors and Malakhov was on the IR...

[supahdon 0]

I'm doing a research project on the effects of the new CBA, and in compiling my data it's apparent that some teams in 2005-2006 were actually over the then 39 Million dollar cap. (NJD, Vancouver) Does anyone recall what the stipulations were that allowed this?

Which site are you using? I believe nhlscap.com has accurate numbers/explanations starting from the lockout.

With the Devils in particular that year, there might be some salaries listed that ended up not counting. Dan McGillis made 2.2 million but was sent to the AHL as was Alexander Mogilny's 3.5 million. Vladimir Malakhov was 'suspended' and his 3.6 million didn't count. Patrik Elias was on LTIR for half of the season, which kicked in some other overly complicated clauses about how to calculate how much he contributed to the cap. John Madden's salary in 2005/06 was something like 3.9 million, but his cap hit was 2.9 million.

But yeah, visit nhlscap.com as the guy (Irish Blues on HF Boards) does a pretty good job of documenting things. If you have any further questions, I'm sure he can answer them for you.