[bigrangy]

i've come up with another scheme. this is one of the more ludicrous ones, don't take it seriously

say elliott is awesome next year, and both parties want to extend him. he's already 31, and he will be 32 when his contract expires. what if Brad could get him to sign an 8 year deal, well under market value, with the understanding that he retires whenever he starts stinking. pretty blatant cap circumvention yes, but both parties would get what they want. front load the crap out of the contract so that by the time Elliot is 36 and probably washed up he's earned most of the money.

something like 8 years, with a structure like 6,6,6,4.5,3,3,3,3

to elliott and the flames, it's like he signed a 4 year 22.5 million deal so 5.5 mil/year

to the cap, it's like he signed a 8 year 34.5 million deal, so only 4.25 mil/year or so.

saves some cap, has some risk, probably would result in forfeiture of some draft picks. seems interesting though.

edit: as dying4acup points out, there would be recapture penalties, so this is just a silly idea that wouldn't help the flames in any way