Quote:
Originally Posted by GioforPM
If the total compensation is below the cap, how is it circumvention?
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Kotkaniemi is making $6.1 million this year, and might be worth a third of that. Call it $2.1 million.
Now suppose he has a handshake agreement to sign with the Hurricanes for four years at a million dollars a year less than he would otherwise, to compensate for being overpaid this year. That's an extra million per year that the Hurricanes can spend on other players for those four years, because they offloaded the cap hit for that money to a year when they were spending less.
The extra million would be the cap circumvention. For the deal to be kosher, there would have had to be a single five-year contract with the same cap hit for all five years – but then Montreal would most likely have matched.
In any case, as you pointed out, the NHL is an exception to the rule that oral contracts are binding, because the CBA specifically requires all contracts to be in writing. If either the Hurricanes or Kotkaniemi think there is a binding deal between them beyond this season, they have another think coming.