With a $75MM cap in today's NHL if your top 11 players (6 forwards, 4 d-men, and starting goalie) take $55 million in cap (averaging $5MM) then you have $20 million to allocate to the remaining 12 guys on your roster (averaging $1.67 MM).
In Edmonton's situation if McDavid and Draisaitl take $22MM of the top tier, you then have $33MM to allocate to the remaining top nine players ($3.6MM average) which is about 30% below the norm. Next you have guys like Lucic and RNH with $6MM contracts - which means to make the math work you need to have other top tier caliber players making the same as your bottom tier guys. This is the sticky wicket that teams in situations like the Oilers face.
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