Possible 2.5 Million Dollar Cap Drop Ramifications

Early reports have surfaced in the past week that the NHL Cap may decrease 2.5 million for the next season. In the 10-11 season, there is expected to be a bigger fall. Good thing we made the playoffs this year, or else.... yuck. Can you imagine the crowds at the Nat next year?

This is honestly GREAT news if you are a Jackets fan. Hopefully the news will be official before we start the Nash renegotiations, it could help save a bit of change. Looking at it from strictly a competitive stand point. We only stand to gain because we are in great cap shape.

Based on this year's data, if the cap were shrunk by 2.5 million, these are the teams that would be over the cap.

Anaheim by 2 million

Boston by 2.2 million

Calgary by 2.5 million

Chicago by 2.4 million (Huet and Campbell will make 13 million next year, so much for that potential dynasty)

Dallas by 2.2 million

Detroit by 2.5 million

Florida !?! by 500 K

Montrael by 1.8 million

New Jersey by 1.1 million

New York by 2.3 million

Philadelphia by 2.5 million

Pittsburgh by 2.2 million

San Jose by 2.5 million

Vancouver by 100 K

Washington by 2.5 million

Numbers from hockeybuzz.com.

Yowza that is 29.3 million dollars of players that will need to be trimmed. You can get a pretty good player for 2.5 million.

The players that stand to lose in this are the grinders. Players like Manny Malhotra will be the ones getting the squeeze. Teams will pay their stars.

With net savings of 600K on Vermette, 3.5 million on Backman, Manny, Peca, Williams off the books that will be nearly 7 million in savings.

Some would lobby to spend that on a star. Why? Cap space will become such a luxury and with the number of players that will be play for dirt cheap contracts coming up soon, that's where we need to take advantage.

This is why Scott Howson will be a great GM for us. He understand the pitfalls of bad contracts (at least I think he does, Wade Redden *cough*). We do not have any terrible deals on our books and about 7 million in savings and still will be able to basically ice the team that played in the playoffs.

As the numbers start to firm up we will get better information about what types of players may become available that we weren't quite expecting, but I would have to believe there will be some high quality players that get the chop for cap reasons.

Another advantage is that we will likely get to sign Brassard, Voracek, Mason, and perhaps Filatov when market value is reduced. This can help a lot for long term savings.

With this knowledge and maybe an even further drop in the following year, how does this affect your stance on this offseason? Do we wait and see on Nash? Do we hardball Manny? Do we not sign a single player in the FA market and pick up cheap trade scraps?

What are your thoughts, what kind of position do you think we are in for this economic future?