Philly Cap'n Crunch

When Paul Holmgren traded for Ilya Bryzgalov rights, the rest of the league is now waiting to see what the next move is for the team.  Could they pull a NJ and dress less players to stay under the salary cap?

The NHL salary cap is expected to raise by approximately 4 million.  Using the cap from last year, Flyers are over by approximately 6  million with some assumptions made to resigning players.  Using the online Capgeek cap calculator, it is obvious the Flyers need to trim more than 5 million in cap space and still add an extra body to have the maximum 21 NHL players.  The calculated cap space was over 6 million (adjusted 2 million with new cap).  Modest raises awarded to RFA's but that number could realistically go higher.  Modest contract awarded to Ilya Bryzgalov with the assumption of a longer term.

If Phily is going to keep the team competitive and intact without much change, it would make sense to move one high priced player rather than a handful of average priced players.  The top earning players are Briere, Richards, Pronger, Timonen and Carter.  Age and salary would declassify Briere, Timonen and Pronger as trade assets leaving Richards and Carter.  The center position is harder to replace than wing, so that would mean Jeff Carter is going to be the subject of trade talks.  When Kris Versteeg was traded to Philly at the trade deadline, Jeff Carter immediately became replaceable.

The remaining question is how much do you give up for a player who is a guaranteed cap hit of  $5,272,727 NTC until the end of 2021-22 season (11 years) (age 37 by end of contract).   At about 60+ points per season, is Jeff Carter worth +5mil per season?


CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Daniel Briere ($6.500m) / Mike Richards ($5.750m) / Jeff Carter ($5.272m)
Scott Hartnell ($4.200m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / Kris Versteeg ($3.083m)
James Van Riemsdyk ($1.654m) / Ian Laperriere ($1.166m) / Jody Shelley ($1.100m)
Blair Betts ($0.700m) / Ville Leino ($1.500m) / Daniel Carcillo ($1.500m)

DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m) / Chris Pronger ($4.921m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Matt Carle ($3.437m)
Braydon Coburn ($3.200m) / Danny Syvret ($1.300m)

GOALTENDERS
Ilya Bryzgalov ($5.000m) / Sergei Bobrovsky ($1.750m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled without the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $59,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $66,119,155; BONUSES: $1,700,000
CAP SPACE (20-man roster): -$6,719,155