There’s an old adage…idle hands are the devil’s workshop. Well, the same goes for idle minds. With nothing in particular to occupy mine, I decided to take a look at where our Penguins stand in available cap space relative to the rest of the league.
It was eye-opening. With roughly $2.6 million of available cap space as of Friday evening, we rank 23rd. We’re in good shape compared to teams like Vegas, Chicago, Dallas and Tampa Bay who sit above the $81.5 cap limit. But we trail most of the teams in the league, including our Metro Division rivals. Some by a wide margin. For example, the nettlesome Islanders have over $17 million in available cap space; the emerging Rangers over $13 million.
The numbers did give me a greater appreciation for the challenges facing Pens general manager Ron Hextall. Simply put, he has very little wiggle room. A legacy of Jim Rutherford taking on salary and handing out rather lavish contracts to emerging but still largely unproven talents like John Marino and Marcus Pettersson. And while I don’t agree with Hextall’s choice of free agents…he should’ve focused his available dollars on adding a functional physical presence…period…I get that we simply aren’t in a position to compete with other clubs for high-profile talent. At least not without swinging a cap-clearing trade or two.
Although there’s always hope that cap-space rich and talent-poor clubs like Detroit and/or Buffalo will help us in that endeavor, I’m not holding my breath.
Without further ado, here’s how we stack up against our NHL brethren according to CapFriendly.
|
Rank |
Team |
Current Cap Hit |
Current Cap Space |
Contracts |
Avg. Contract Value |
|
1 |
Detroit |
$50,972,223 |
$30,527,777 |
18 |
$2,831,790 |
|
2 |
Ottawa |
$51,748,333 |
$29,751,667 |
20 |
$2,587,417 |
|
3 |
Buffalo |
$52,897,763 |
$28,602,237 |
20 |
$2,644,888 |
|
4 |
New Jersey |
$60,257,235 |
$21,242,765 |
18 |
$3,347,624 |
|
5 |
Nashville |
$61,491,143 |
$20,008,857 |
19 |
$3,236,376 |
|
6 |
Minnesota |
$61,785,255 |
$19,714,745 |
17 |
$3,634,427 |
|
7 |
Anaheim |
$63,820,000 |
$17,680,000 |
17 |
$3,754,118 |
|
8 |
NY Islanders |
$63,829,188 |
$17,670,812 |
18 |
$3,546,066 |
|
9 |
Seattle |
$65,106,666 |
$16,393,334 |
19 |
$3,426,667 |
|
10 |
Vancouver |
$67,435,659 |
$14,064,341 |
22 |
$3,065,257 |
|
11 |
Carolina |
$67,573,583 |
$13,926,417 |
20 |
$3,378,679 |
|
12 |
NY Rangers |
$67,837,302 |
$13,662,698 |
24 |
$2,826,554 |
|
13 |
Calgary |
$69,325,000 |
$12,175,000 |
17 |
$4,077,941 |
|
14 |
Columbus |
$70,115,862 |
$11,384,138 |
25 |
$2,804,634 |
|
15 |
Arizona |
$71,628,617 |
$9,871,383 |
20 |
$3,581,431 |
|
16 |
Philadelphia |
$73,489,523 |
$8,010,477 |
21 |
$3,499,501 |
|
17 |
Florida |
$73,669,622 |
$7,830,378 |
24 |
$3,069,568 |
|
18 |
Winnipeg |
$73,784,645 |
$7,715,355 |
16 |
$4,611,540 |
|
19 |
St. Louis |
$75,168,849 |
$6,331,151 |
20 |
$3,758,442 |
|
20 |
San Jose |
$75,963,334 |
$5,536,666 |
21 |
$3,617,302 |
|
21 |
Colorado |
$76,369,797 |
$5,130,203 |
20 |
$3,818,490 |
|
22 |
Washington |
$78,831,260 |
$2,668,740 |
20 |
$3,941,563 |
|
23 |
Pittsburgh |
$78,903,205 |
$2,596,795 |
21 |
$3,757,295 |
|
24 |
Los Angeles |
$79,509,588 |
$1,990,412 |
24 |
$3,312,900 |
|
25 |
Edmonton |
$80,298,968 |
$1,201,032 |
22 |
$3,649,953 |
|
26 |
Boston |
$80,410,674 |
$1,089,326 |
23 |
$3,496,116 |
|
27 |
Toronto |
$80,644,783 |
$855,217 |
23 |
$3,506,295 |
|
28 |
Montreal |
$81,476,370 |
$23,630 |
21 |
$3,879,827 |
|
29 |
Vegas |
$81,537,439 |
($37,439)* |
20 |
$4,076,872 |
|
30 |
Chicago |
$82,167,547 |
($667,547)* |
22 |
$3,734,889 |
|
31 |
Dallas |
$83,422,072 |
($1,922,072)* |
22 |
$3,791,912 |
|
32 |
Tampa Bay |
$87,240,955 |
($5,740,955)* |
21 |
$4,154,331 |
|
*Over the cap limit due to Long-Term Injured Reserve (LTIR) |
|||||
Hey Rick,
Very interesting look at the team – Financial. At this point in time, our Penguins will have the 10th highest payroll but the way things are shaping up they may end up with a W – L record in the bottom 10 of the league; not a very good outlook.
I do have to disagree with you about Hextall though. Yes he is left with a serious mess, the legacy of the JR era but Hextall did not have a stellar week; no not at all – his moves this week took on salary but only weakened the team. His signings were fiscally irresponsible and very much akin to JR handing fat contracts to Pettersson and Marino on this current roster and JR wonder moves like signing Matt Hunwick and Jack Johnson. The players Hextall added in FA are not better than the weak prospect pool the team has to draw from. In fact they are worse. Therefore, Hextall trip to the FA market was like my wife going to the store and coming back home with a $4!t load of stuff that we don’t need and justifying it by saying “but it was on sale.”
Who cares if it was on sale if it was something you don’t need; it is still a waste of money.
If Hextall really wanted another Smurf, he signed Valterri Puustenin, the 5′-9″ alum of the 2019 draft class who has been playing in Liiga. This kid scored 38 G and 81 Pnts in his last 105 GP over in Finland. Yes those numbers were in Europe but if given as much time with Crosby as Simon has been given, he will do infinitely better than Pylon Simon.
More importantly, the stated objective was to get bigger and tougher and only McGinn represents any real grit. You didn’t have a successful trip to the store if you went to get steak but came back with Tofu. Once again, I remind you that the team already has Zahorna, Legare, Angello, Poulin, Lafferty, Bjorkqvist, Bellerive, Hallander, and O’Conner. All making considerably less than Rodrigues and Heinen, all of which have better tools in their game for those bottom to middle 6 slots. Any ice time given to Rodrigues, Heinen, Simon, or Chaput instead of the players I have already mentioned is a travesty and weakens the team – and you know with Simon in his tool box, Sullivan will not have him in WBS but Pgh and most probably on Crosby’s line.
Furthermore, if Simon and Chaput are even WBS they are thieves stealing not only from the Penguins I have already mentioned but from Drozg and Gruden. The only place for those 2 is Wheeling and even that is more than they may deserve – at least in the case of Simon.
Outside of McGinn, the only other signing that should turn out is Lindberg.
I don’t mention Fedun because the cupboard is bare when it comes to defensemen, so the former Oiler, Shark, Canuck, Sabre, Star isn’t stealing time off anyone at all.
As we spoke yesterday, this team is developing an air of 1983 – 84. I can still here the refrain of a less than satisfied fan one particular game that year echoing through the old Igloo “Hey Lou, Hey Lou, your putting me to sleep Lou [Angotti]”.
(True story)
Hi Rick,
What a great article explaining the Pens as they stand today comparing them with the other 31 teams in the league. It quickly becomes apparent that many teams in the league, and especially ones in the so called “Smaller markets” do not spend 81.5 million dollars a year on players salaries and many are forced to operate on a Budget that is far less than our Pens. I raised this question to you a few years back Rick..What happens when the Pen’s owners can no longer fund to the Cap limit and we need to operate on a $ 71.5 million dollar Salary Cap ? We now have to cut 10 million from the team ….Where do we cut ?? What do we do ??
Remember last year when Mario had that frank interview and said ” we may have to place a budget on the operating salaries if things do not improve” . He meant winning another Cup or at least go deep into the play offs..Well we all know that never happened …So if we needed to operate with 10 million less dollars for salaries where does that leave us Rick ? Other teams do it all the time! Take a look at the Islanders or Carolina to name just two. We have become spoiled and we think it can never end…Everything has an ending…
Cheers
Jim