A few short moments ago, the NHLPA announced the payroll range for the upcoming 2015-16.
From their official press release:
NEW YORK/TORONTO (June 23, 2015) – The National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players’ Association today announced that the Team Payroll Range established for the 2015-16 League Year, pursuant to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, provides for a Lower Limit of $52.8 million, an Adjusted Midpoint of $62.1 million and an Upper Limit of $71.4 million.
These figures represent a $2.1 million increase from last season and in Ottawa, where there a lot of attention has been drawn to the Senators’ bottom line and how much money the team spends on its players, today’s news will kick start analysis of this team’s internal budget and spending.
According to GeneralFanager.com, the Senators already have $61,082,500 in real dollars (a $59,750,832 cap hit) committed to ten forwards, eight defencemen and its three goaltenders – which leaves the Senators just below the adjusted midpoint of $62.1 million. The Senators currently have the ninth-highest committed number of dollars committed to its payroll, but it’s too early in the offseason to accurately assess how the Senators will stack up relative to their peers by the end of the offseason.
As the second-lowest spending team in the entire NHL last season, it feels safe to assume that the organization will be limited by their own self-imposed budget. Which complicates things considering where the team’s payroll is now and how three significant assets — Mark Stone, Mike Hoffman and Mika Zibanejad — are restricted free agents who require new contracts. Management will be under a lot of pressure to cut salary elsewhere and find ways to fit their contracts in.
Some salary relief will come with the inevitable goaltender trade, but Ottawa’s fervent attempts to package a shitty contract with one of its goaltenders in a trade sheds some light on how desperate they are to not only clear salary, but do it without having to resort to a buyout.
These trade negotiations underscore the problem in Ottawa: it’s not so much an internal budget problem as much as it is a payroll allocation problem. With approximately $20 million committed in salary to a myriad of players — like Legwand, Smith, Cowen, Greening, Phillips, Michalek (who should be in a bottom six role this season) — who regularly fill out the team’s bottom six, bottom pairing or the majority of the press box seats, finding ways to get out from underneath these contracts is a short-term predicament.
It’s also one that should prove difficult to solve and leaves the organization susceptible to offer sheets.
This summer certainly won’t lack its drama.
Can’t wait…
Other News and Notes…
– Ian Mendes has a tremendous story about Mark Stone up on TSN.ca. If you haven’t read it already, check it out.
– If you attended last summer’s Sens Summer Fan Fest, you’ll know that I hosted a panel featuring James Gordon, Ian Mendes, Todd White and Amelia from Silver Seven Sens. Sens Summer Fan Fest organizer Kevin Lee (@BringBackLee) announced last night that I will be hosting another panel at this year’s event. The guests at this point have not been named, but if you have any special requests, throw them into the comment thread below. Oh, and if you also haven’t done so already, buy your damn ticket(s) too!
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