Tuesday, November 06, 2007

To count or not to count.....

I'm confused. I always thought if a player was put on the IR, his salary did not count towards the cap. Sure you're still paying him somehow but his salary is not counted. Pisani is on the Long term injury reserve. I must be wrong or don't understand the CBA.

From the Edm Journal:

CAVALRY'S NOT COMING

The Oilers decided not to bring in another forward -- probably Patrick Thoresen -- when they sent Marc Pouliot to Springfield, which means they only have 12 healthy forwards to go with six defencemen and two goalies. That's the bare minimum to field a lineup -- 20 guys. It's economics, because the Oilers have more than $48 million on their salary cap.
"We don't want to use it up," said GM Kevin Lowe. "We have some room, but not that much because Fernie (Fernando Pisani) is still on the cap. We just can't have excess players around. It's not like we're down around, say, $42 million or $43 million."


This is on the NHL's website:

A Club's payroll will include all salaries, signing bonuses and performance bonuses paid to players. Except in the case of bona fide long-term injury (injuries that sideline a player for a minimum of 24 days and 10 games) to one or more of a club's players

I really don't feel like reading the bloody CBA so if someone can explain it to me, I'd love that. Why they would still have Pisani's salary counting towards the cap is odd (how about Moreau, he's on the injury reserve, I'm assuming his salary is counting too)?

Anyways, the Oilers are sucking it up lately giving up 4 powerplay goals last night against the evil Wild. Only one thing to say: we're rebuilding!!!


Also, an interesting story on Penner coming to training camp out of shape. Almost two months later, he's still out of shape. Come on boy, get on the bike!!!


Update: Mike at Covered in Oil explained this over there: Technically, players with long-term injuries still count against the cap.But the team is then allowed to go over the cap limit to the cost of their salary (so $50.3 million plus Pisani's $2.5 million). Basically, the Oilers are allowed to go over the cap but they're just too damn cheap to do so. Thanks EIG...we're down numerous defensemen and a couple key gritty forwards, but let's not spend any more money. Good call.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pisani's injury isn't hockey related, so in order for his salary not to count against the cap. The Oiler's would have to suspend him. Buffalo did this to Numminen because of his heart ailment. However, the Oilers are classy, Buffalo is not.

Anonymous said...

This is still not right.

First, the salary does count towards the cap, injured or not.

Second, the long term injury clause does not automatically allow a team to spend to the cap max + the entire amount of the injured player's salary.

If a team has a payroll of $42 million and a player with a salary of $2 or $3 million gets injured, the team gets no cap relief. None. This is because the team's salary + the player's salary is still under the cap.

The only way you get to spend to the max plus the entire amount of the injured player's salary is if you were already exactly at the max.

The LTI clause only brings relief to those teams spending near the max and with injured player's salaries that then push them over the max. For instance, if a team has a payroll of $48 million and an injured (LTI) player with a salary of $5 million, then that team would temporarily be able to spend $53 million while the player was on LTI (but would be required to get back under the original cap immediately when the player returns from LTI).

Anonymous said...

Did anyone see the "Cash is King" commercial with Ethan?

It is sooo painful to watch him talk. ha ha

It looks like he'd rather be anywhere but there.

Oh, Ethan, you glassman.

Marsha said...

Sheesh, this cap stuff is confusing and annoying. I personally think if a player is on the injury list, it should not count to the cap. It's annoying.

Moreau = boring. Like I've said before, it could be worse (hello Pisani). But Ethan...are you a robot??