Quote:
Originally Posted by Resolute 14
You're conflating cap hit with actual dollars.
The team might still choose to maintain a lower internal cap, knowing that the actual dollars for this year will be well above that cap, but also knowing that it will be much lower in future years.
|
Uh, but that's the point entirely.
First off, Carolina doesn't care about the cap. They aren't and won't be close. So it's only actual dollars that matter to them.
Now, instead of paying Aho for the next 2 years, 8.5M spread out over this year and 8.5M spread out over next year, like they would have on a 'normal' 8.5M contract they are forced to pay him 12M today and another 11M come July 1, 2020. That's 23M in a calendar year instead of 17M over 2. Add on Marleau's signing bonus of 3M (which admittedly they willingly took) and the team will be spending at least 80M this year in actual money and an additional 10M come July 1st. That's 90M in 366 days for a team that has not spent anywhere near that. It's very likely that was not the plan going into the off-season, and almost certainly does handcuff them in offering other UFAs who could have been available because they've far exceeded their budget for the year. This isn't Toronto or New York, they had a (soft) budget in mind and that would have been thrown out the window with this contract. If Crosby was available tomorrow for Clark Bishop, sure they are going to make that trade 10 times out of 10 but a second tier UFA? Getting the ah-okay to exceed the yearly budget by 20M or so, that's a lot harder pill to swallow.
Now yes, they do 'save' in the future and that needs to be accounted for but just like any type of budget once you exceed it, it's a lot harder to get approval for the "nice-to-have" commodities.