[Trade] Leafs trade David Clarkson to Blue Jackets for Nathan Horton

[HUSKER4FLAMES]

Columbus gets a skater in clarkson and and almost enough space for a minimum player and can ice two skaters for the same money they were paying for no skater. Cap space be damned. They are better financially. My guess is due to previous injuries he was declined for insurance.

[Oling_Roachinen]

I wonder if Toronto will get out Horton jerseys as quickly as Florida got out Jagr's.

[Erick Estrada]

Surely there are better ways to bring in a warm body than accepting Clarkson's deal?

[transplant99]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

My understanding is that a player can be placed on LTIR in order to make the team cap compliant on the first day of the season; they don't have to be compliant before putting the player on LTIR. That, I believe, is how the Flyers have handled Pronger's cap hit.

So the Leafs can exceed the cap by 10% (about $7 million at present) during the off season, of which $6 million will be taken up by Horton's contract. Once the season starts, they can exceed the cap by the amount of Horton's contract.

The only things they give up are some flexibility to exceed the cap during the off season (which most teams don't use anyway), and the actual money to pay Horton with (which doesn't matter, because the Leafs have more money than they have any use for). In exchange, they get a mulligan on the idiotic contract they gave Clarkson. Sounds like a pretty sweet deal to me.

In that case....makes all the sense in the world.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by opendoor

Not exactly. They can only exceed the cap by the amount they're over on opening day.

Having reread the relevant section of the CBA, 50.10(d), I think this may be a misunderstanding on your part. They can exceed the cap by the cap hit of the player on LTIR, regardless of how much they are over on opening day. Some of the examples make this clearer, but the way they are written makes it a bit hard to follow.

They also lose a lot of in season flexibility if they're going to be a cap team. Once you place a guy on LTIR prior to the season it becomes pretty difficult to even have enough room to call anyone up for short term injuries without putting another guy on LTIR.

That only follows if your interpretation of 50.10(d) is correct, which I believe not to be the case.

You also get hammered by bonuses if you're using LTIR. Normally any achieved bonuses eat up any cap space left over at the end of the season before getting tacked onto the next year's total, but since there is zero cap space while using LTIR 100% of achieved bonuses get pushed to the next season. That's what happened with Chicago after winning the cup in 2010 and with the Bruins this year where Iginla and Hamilton's bonuses from last season are taking up nearly $5M in cap space.

That didn't happen to either Chicago or Boston because of players on LTIR, though. It happened because they deliberately went over the cap by signing contracts with big bonuses, knowing that the excess cap hit could be deferred. Toronto will have just as much access to the ‘Performance Bonus Cushion’ as any other team. They'll just be in the position of needing it sooner.

[Jay Random]

Originally Posted by Erick Estrada

Surely there are better ways to bring in a warm body than accepting Clarkson's deal?

Sure. But none of those ways also let you get rid of Horton's salary.

[CalgaryFan1988]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Sure. But none of those ways also let you get rid of Horton's salary.

And without giving up an asset.

Would love to be a fly on the wall and find out what draft pick Calgary was trying to get from Columbus.

[cannon7]

Just watch, Clarkson will become the 20-goal power forward he looked like in NJ.

[savemedrzaius]

HAHAHAHA!!! Columbus is crazy! So great for the Leafs.

[Moneyhands23]

Columbus has a budget, leafs do not. Either way Nonis makes a 30 million dollar mistake and still has a job...

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Having reread the relevant section of the CBA, 50.10(d), I think this may be a misunderstanding on your part. They can exceed the cap by the cap hit of the player on LTIR, regardless of how much they are over on opening day. Some of the examples make this clearer, but the way they are written makes it a bit hard to follow.

That only follows if your interpretation of 50.10(d) is correct, which I believe not to be the case.

Read CapGeek's explanation. It explains it better than I can:

https://web.archive.org/web/20141005...erve-LTIR-work

They give specific examples of teams shifting players between the AHL and NHL to maximize the exemption they'll be allowed to have. For instance last year Pittsburgh demoted Beau Bennett and recalled Harrison Ruopp and Chris Conner and named them to their opening day roster. That put the team $1.99M over the cap and at that point they placed Vokoun and his $2M cap hit on LTIR. Doing those moves allowed them to get within $10K of their full exemption. Once the opening day roster was named Roupp and Conner were demoted and Bennett was recalled.

Here's a whole article about their moves:

http://thehockeywriters.com/pittsbur...er-moves-2013/

If Pittsburgh could've simply gone over the cap by $2M regardless of their roster makeup at the time Vokoun was placed on LTIR then none of those moves would've needed to happen. In fact Pittsburgh even went to the trouble of assigning Bennett to the ECHL instead of the AHL because Wheeling is closer to Pittsburgh than Wilkes-Barre is which goes to show that these were cap transactions, not hockey ones.

That didn't happen to either Chicago or Boston because of players on LTIR, though. It happened because they deliberately went over the cap by signing contracts with big bonuses, knowing that the excess cap hit could be deferred. Toronto will have just as much access to the ‘Performance Bonus Cushion’ as any other team. They'll just be in the position of needing it sooner.

Yeah, but teams invariably have some cap space by the end of the season, or they can at least plan for that eventuality by saving some space up. Teams using LTIR cannot do that. If Toronto is using LTIR then 100% of achieved bonuses will get bumped to the next year. And since bonuses don't get included in LTIR exemption calculations (i.e. in order to get the full exemption the team must be at the cap without including bonuses) it can be extremely tough for a team using LTIR to not incur those penalties if they have players hitting bonuses.

[Roof-Daddy]

Originally Posted by savemedrzaius

HAHAHAHA!!! Columbus is crazy! So great for the Leafs.

lol

Just remember, the idiot that signed Clarkson to that deal is still steering your ship, and had to take on an LTIR player who is signed until 2021 just to get rid of it.

I wouldn't call that "great".

[united]

Originally Posted by sureLoss

It would have been Horton + young player for Stajan + Raymond. Or so I am told.

Mason, Matt (pending), congratulation on your newborn babies. You've been traded to Columbus.

Come on.

[Flash Walken]

Can Horton be bought out by Toronto?

Is that something they would consider?

Cap hit would be similar to a Richards buyout, right?

[Erick Estrada]

Originally Posted by Jay Random

Sure. But none of those ways also let you get rid of Horton's salary.

Well they are now paying almost all that money to a mediocre forward that they will be stuck with for the duration of the deal. I get that financially it's a good deal for them but its a kick in the teeth for fans as Clarkson is arguably the most overpaid player in the league.

[opendoor]

Originally Posted by Flash Walken

Can Horton be bought out by Toronto?

Is that something they would consider?

Cap hit would be similar to a Richards buyout, right?

Can't buy out injured players.

[Flash Walken]

Originally Posted by Roof-Daddy

lol

Just remember, the idiot that signed Clarkson to that deal is still steering your ship, and had to take on an LTIR player who is signed until 2021 just to get rid of it.

I wouldn't call that "great".

Huge conflict of interest having a the architect do the demolishing.

See Feaster, Jay.

[BigTuna]

Originally Posted by c.t.ner

Daaaaaaamn. Although Clarkson's contract is atrocious, having someone able to play is probably a big steal for the Blue Jackets.

Getting Clarkson is a steal?

[BigTuna]

The real reason for this trade is Columbus is 30th in revenue. Toronto is 1st. The Leafs exploited that. Columbus can't afford Horton's contract. ( In terms of never playing).

[dammage79]

Originally Posted by BigTuna

Getting Clarkson is a steal?

For Columbus, yes. Small Market teams like them cannot really afford to have x amount of dollars tied up into someone who is not playing.

In any other circumstance Clrakson is a massive boat anchor. In this circumstance, found money.