Cap Management

So in watching how teams keep getting into cap trouble I thought it would be fun to put out my idea of the "ideal" cap manament system.
It's common knowledge that every team wants to keep all their good players. And on the same token it's pretty common to see teams give up those players because they overspent. Either on that particular player or on lesser talent (like Horcoff).

So I started looking at the percentages that a team should employ to decide what they are going to spend on each line, Defense pairing and Goalies.

Considering that a team is going to ice 20 players, and 12 are going to be forwards, 6 are defense and 2 are goalies, lets look at the overal percentages.

With forwards making up 60% of the overall players, it would seem that they should have 60% of the cap spent on them. My guess is 30% on Defense and 10% on Goalies. So this means about $35.64M on the forwards, $17.82M on defense, and $5.94M on goalies.

This is approx $2.97M per player.

Now thats a HEFTY raise for a 3-4 liner and a giant haircut for a first liner so obviously there has to be some give and take.

Of course any GM is going to make things a little cheaper than what I will put up here, but assuming that, said GM is willing to go nuts tight to the cap, this in my opinion is the best averages available.

1st line------ $6.47M    --    $6.47M    --    $6.47M
2nd line ---- $2.97M     --    $2.97M    --    $2.97M
3rd line ----  $1.50M     --    $1.50M   --     $1.50M
4th line  ---- $1.00M   --      $1.00M    --    $1.00M

Defense:

1st pairing------$5.47M -----$5.47M
2nd pairing-----$2.50M------$2.50M
3rd pairing-----$1.00M------$1.00M

Goalies:

Starter--------$4.50M
Backup-------$1.50M

My idea on how a team should be run is that the 2nd and 4th line should be rookies and cheap vets. The 3rd defense pairing should be rookies and the 2nd pairing should be cheap vets. and the back up goalie should be a rookie. This is the begining of the turnover model. If a rookie is getting to the point where they can take over as a top line player, they get the pay raise, move up the line structure and the player they replace can be moved for more assets or picks. (this does require that the positions be built very similar in style so that players can be plugged into higher positions with out messing up the structure of the line) eg. If the top line center is a right handed playmaker, the goal would be to have the second line center ALSO a right handed playmaker. The same goes for defense too. The fourth line is designed to eventually take over for the 3rd line and so on and so forth.

Of course money would fluctuate a bit from player to player and having rookies in the lineup helps alot, but if the GM would recognize what the maximum salaries they can spend on each position was, there would be very little in the way of  cap problems. Lol, and of course they should really have their capologists on hand on July 1 to ensure they dont go hog wild signing guys for dollars WAY over and above what they are worth. UFA hangovers are bitch and they can last for years. If they plan on signing a second line player, they have to recognize that there is a maximum dollar value they can spend. The list goes on for all positions.

Teams are slowly figuring this out, and we are seeing more and more UFA`s not getting contracts that suit them. So they are either retiring early, or moving to other leagues like the KHL. This isnt as bad a thought as most people think. It is going to eventually drop the average salary of the middling players to respectable value and those said players will either be back, or at the very least when the new crop of middling players are ready for contracts they will be willing to get paid their proper value. Decisions on where to play will start to be made less on the dollars they will recieve and more on the structure of the team and if they will eventually have a shot at the Stanley Cup. Of course there will always be some greedy players, and certain teams will always jump at signing a player that is way over valued. But for the most part this will lend to more parity around the league and better overall product on the ice.


Until next time.