Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Race to the salary floor: Four teams still have cash to spend to compete

New York Rangers v New York Islanders

UNIONDALE, NY - MARCH 31: Josh Bailey #12 of the New York Islanders skates against the New York Rangers at the Nassau Coliseum on March 31, 2011 in Uniondale, New York. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Getty Images

While we’ve been busy taking a look at the cap room a handful of teams will have next year and the lack of cap room others have, there’s still a few more teams that have a lot of money left to spend so that they too can compete this year. Four teams are still under the NHL salary floor of $48.3 million and with most, if not all, of the prime free agent targets signed these teams could be facing a bit of a bind.

Who are those four? CapGeek.com has us covered in knowing who they are and how much they’ve got left to spend. We’ll take a look at each team’s scenario and just what they’ve got left to do to cover the rest of their payroll bill to play next season.

New York Islanders

The Isles have over $9 million left to spend to get to the salary floor. CapGeek lists the Islanders as having just over $39 million committed to next season’s payroll and for a team that’s got most of their roster set for next season, that’s a bit of an issue. To help chip away at that daunting amount, the Islanders have four restricted free agents left to sign. Josh Bailey and Blake Comeau will get a decent pay day once they’re signed to new deals but Micheal Haley won’t get paid much at all and likely ends up in the AHL. Jesse Joensuu has already departed to play in Sweden.

Making things more fun for the Islanders is the talk of bringing back former captain and major buyout victim Alexei Yashin. Yashin is reportedly being offered a deal around $2 million but the stunning part about that is he’s already being paid $2.2 million by the Islanders for the next four years thanks to being bought out back in 2007. Whoops.

If Yashin is signed by the Islanders again, he’ll be double dipping on the team and still unlikely to help them reach the salary floor. That is unless they offered him a contract similar to the one that got the Isles in so much trouble the last time around. Of course, if things play out like that they’ll have to completely rebuild the Nassau Coliseum really fast after hordes of angry Isles fans burn it to the ground.

If the Isles can acquire a defenseman worth a couple million in a deal and get Bailey and Comeau re-signed to improved deals and bring in Yashin, they’ll get closer to the $48.3 million they need to reach the floor. Finding another team to deal with for a defenseman might be tricky and the isles seem unlikely as an option to bring back newly unrestricted free agent Chris Campoli. It’s never a dull moment on the Island.

Shea Weber

Nashville Predators’ Shea Weber, left, of Canada, rounds the rink after scoring during the first period of an NHL hockey game against the Tampa Bay Lightning in Tampa, Fla., Sunday, Oct. 24, 2010. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack)

AP

Nashville Predators

Nashville’s situation can get figured out really fast and really easily. The Predators payroll is sitting at $41.2 million, just over $7 million from the salary floor and they’ve got one really big restricted free agent left to get signed in captain Shea Weber. Weber is one of the top defensemen in the NHL and more than worthy of a big raise and a long term deal with the Preds.

Weber should get a contract somewhere in the range of $6 million-$7 million per year against the cap and with that coupled up with potentially Ryan Ellis making the Predators roster and bringing his entry level deal worth over $1.4 million against the cap the Predators are shaping up just fine to be in compliance with the floor.

The key is getting Weber’s deal done and while the Preds are a frugal team that doesn’t break the bank for anyone, doing so for Weber makes a lot of sense. He’s their best player, the team captain, and he loves playing in Nashville. While the Preds may have headaches next season dealing with Ryan Suter and Pekka Rinne, it’s not as if they’re pushed up against the cap. Time to “get ‘er done” in Nashville.

2011 NHL Entry Draft - Portraits

ST PAUL, MN - JUNE 24: Second overall pick Gabriel Landeskog by the Colorado Avalanche poses for a photo portrait during day one of the 2011 NHL Entry Draft at Xcel Energy Center on June 24, 2011 in St Paul, Minnesota. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Colorado Avalanche

The Avalanche aren’t too far off from getting things done. Colorado’s payroll is at $45.4 million putting them about $2.8 million off from reaching the salary floor. The Avalanche have just one restricted free agent left to get signed in defenseman Kyle Cumiskey. Cumiskey’s potential deal likely won’t pay him enough to get the Avs to the floor but there’s another guy waiting in the wings that could solve all of Colorado’s problems.

2011 first round pick Gabriel Landeskog is a distinct possibility to make the team in his first year out of junior hockey and should he do that, his first-year entry-level contract will come with a cap hit of over $3 million as the second overall pick in the draft. The trick there is that Colorado still has to sign him to it and then he’ll have to make the team out of training camp. If he does that, the Avs salary floor worries are all taken care of and the addition of Cumiskey’s deal will push them over the floor limit.

Phoenix Coyotes v Detroit Red Wings - Game Two

DETROIT, MI - APRIL 16: Kyle Turris #91 of the Phoenix Coyotes skates with the puck while playing the Detroit Red Wings in Game Two of the Western Conference Quarterfinals during the 2011 Stanley Cup Playoffs at Joe Louis Arena on April 16, 2011 in Detroit, Michigan. (Photo by Gregory Shamus/Getty Images)

Getty Images

Phoenix Coyotes

Phoenix doesn’t have much to do to get over the salary floor. With a payroll currently at $47.8 million, the Coyotes only have just over $430,000 left to spend to break the barrier. With restricted free agents Kyle Turris and Mikkel Boedker left to get signed, it’s mathematical that the Coyotes will get over the salary floor. Even if somehow both Turris and Boedker signed contracts worth the league minimum they’d go flying past the salary floor and into compliance.

As it is, the Coyotes will be looking to Turris to have the breakout season they’ve been waiting on since drafting him third overall in 2007. Turris has had his ups and downs in Dave Tippett’s system in Phoenix and being rushed to the NHL under Wayne Gretzky’s watch in 2007-2008 did him no favors. Boedker similarly could use a breakout year as well and he too has struggled under Tippett’s watch. They’ll get paid, but they may not be long for the desert if things don’t pick up.