Clarkson trade means we sign Gusev

Team: 2019-20 Vegas Golden Knights

Initial Creation Date: Jul. 23, 2019

Published: Jul. 23, 2019

Salary Cap Mode: Basic

a lot of people say that teams will have room once the season starts, but they have to be compliant before the season starts. While the wording of that is true, the reasoning isn't. You can actually use LTIR before the season starts to become compliant, it just has different rules.

Using LTIR before the season starts has different rules, but it's for the same reason. If you're over the cap, it means you have already replaced the player, and now you just need the space. Prior to opening day, if you use LTIR the formula is current cap hit= new cap, up to the full Salary of the player. The Hawks are a good example of this. Let's say their cap hit is $77.5m, and they place Hossa on LTIR, their new cap is $77.5m and they have $0 in cap space. This formula always leaves $0 in cap space, unless you are over the cap by more than the player's salary. Let's say the Leafs sign a big player, and are at the off-season max of 10% over the cap ($82.5m). They could place Horton on LTIR, but since they are over the cap by $2.2m more than Horton’s cap hit, they would only get a new cap of $80.3m and still be $2.2m over that cap. They could also place Lupul on LTIR and get a cap of $82.5m and have $0 in cap space, or they could combine the two types of LTIR. So after they've put Horton on LTIR, they’re still $2.2m over the cap. The max you can bury is $1.025m, so let's say we bury 3 players with a combined hit of $2.2m. Now it's opening day, and we have $0 in cap space. We then put Lupul ($5.25) on LTIR, and get a new cap of $85.55m, with $5.25m in cap space. It's a confusing concept, so here’s a better explanation, and here's the CNA article:

Illustration #4: The Upper Limit in a League Year is $70.0 million. A Player who has an SPC with an Averaged Amount of $2.0 million becomes unfit to play on the last day of Training Camp, and on the same day, his Club exercises the Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception on such Player. On Opening Day, the Club has an Averaged Club Salary of $71.5 million (excluding Earnable Performance Bonuses up to the full amount of the Performance Bonus Cushion). The Club is deemed to have already fully replaced the unfit-to-play Player with any Player or Players on the Opening Day Roster. If these replacements are maintained through the conclusion of the season, the Club's Averaged Club Salary is $71.5 million, as the Club is permitted to exceed the Upper Limit by $1.5 million because of the Bona-Fide Long-Term Injury/Illness Exception.

In other words if you have a player on LTIR and are not using it's full relief, you can't dip back into the extra relief when a new player is signed. Clearing Clarkson paves the way to signing Gusev

1.

2.