Quote:
Originally Posted by Mattman
San Jose may have a fair shot to sign him with $19 mil in cap space, but they only have 2 forwards, 4 defensemen, and 1 goalie under contract after the 2019-20 season. They could put themselves in cap hell by signing Tavares for $11mil/year.
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No. No team, especially a team with no real bad contracts, will be in cap hell because of Tavares at 11M.
When Brad Richards was signed at 7.8M in 2006, he took up 18% of the cap. With today's 79.5M cap hit, the equivalent cap percentage would be over 14M.
An 11M contract would be worth 13.8% of the cap today. When Phaneuf signed his extension, his 6.5M RFA second contract, the salary cap was still 50M (although expected to rise in the summer). 6.5M is exactly 13% of 50M. I don't recall too much talk of cap hell because of Phaneuf when he first signed, most people were happy to get him locked up long-term. And again, that was as an RFA.
If a team is in cap hell with a franchise center like Tavares at 11M, they are in cap hell in-spite of Tavares, not because of him.