NHL Free Agency: Where does your team stand within the Salary Cap?
The NHL offseason is nearly here. Where does each team currently stand as NHL free agency draws near?
As the NHL offseason kicks off into high gear starting on Oct. 9, which is the start of NHL free agency, teams will start shaping their rosters. This will be a uniquely short offseason, so expect moves to happen quickly. As teams look to improve their rosters, it is important to see where your team stands in relationship to the salary cap and why some transactions will have to be made.
Expiring contracts will be valuable trade chips. Unrestricted Free Agents (UFA) can sign with any team after October 9th. Teams can match offers to their Restricted Free Agents (RFA) but many will need to clear space to sign them or match an offer. Any player with a No Trade Clause (NTC) or No Movement Clause (NMC) will be harder to trade because teams will need permission from the player to approve the trade, hindering leverage.
Unfortunately, with the lost revenue in the 2019-2020 season due to the novel coronavirus pandemic, the salary cap will stay at $81.5 million. It will be a challenge for most teams to shape their roster moving forward.
Here is a quick team by team breakdown in alphabetical order of where NHL teams stand in relationship to the salary cap heading into the 2020-2021 season. All contract data is courtesy of CapFriendly.
ANAHEIM DUCKS
Cap space: $470,001
Forwards
Ryan Getzlaf – $8.25 million cap hit, NMC, UFA 2021
David Backes – $4.50 million cap hit, NTC, UFA 2021
Danton Heinen – $2.80 million cap hit, RFA 2021
Max Jones – $863,000 cap hit, RFA 2021
Sam Steel – $863,000 cap hit, RFA 2021
Rickard Rakell – $3.79 million cap hit, UFA 2022
Sonny Milano – $1.70 million cap hit, RFA 2022
Adam Henrique – $5.83 million cap hit, NTC, UFA 2024
Jakob Silfverberg – $5.25 million cap hit, NTC, UFA 2024
Troy Terry – $1.45 million cap hit, RFA 2023
Carter Rowney – $1.13 million cap hit, UFA 2021
Nicolas Deslauriers – $1 million cap hit, UFA 2022
Defensemen
Erik Gudbranson- $4 million cap hit, UFA 2021
Hampus Lindholm – $5.21 million cap hit, UFA 2022
Josh Manson – $4.10 million cap hit, NTC, UFA 2022
Cam Fowler – $6.50 million cap hit, NTC,
Jacob Larsson – $1.2 million cap hit, RFA 2022
Kodie Curran – $1 million cap hit, UFA 2022
Christian Djoos – $1 million cap hit, RFA 2021
Goaltenders
John Gibson – $6.40 million cap hit, UFA 2027
LTIR
Ryan Kesler – $6.875 million cap hit, NMC, UFA 2022
Buyouts
Corey Perry – $6.63 million against the cap for 2020-21 season, $2 million against cap per year in 2021-22 and 2022-23
2020-2021 Draft Outlook
Ducks have 2 selections in the first round at #6 and #27 overall. Anaheim has one pick in each of the second through sixth rounds.
Anaheim Ducks summary
The Ducks are in good shape cap wise in the future. Not too many bad, long term contracts. Anaheim will need to clear space if they want to make improvements for the 2020-21 season as they are already close to the $81.5 million salary cap threshold.