2020 Same cap

The whole point of aquiring Coleman was to save money, but every team in the league will take him for free. Your better off to trade Killorn and then try to move someone else

Agreed, Coleman isn't going anywhere. Killorn Paquette and likely Coburn to be moved. Shattenkirk is likely gone unless he goes very team friendly(not happening) and can see Maroon not returning as well. Too many ?'s right now for any real agm to have weight, as we don't know where the cap will be, if it goes up, stays flat or, unlikely, that it goes down, will there be a compliance buyout option etc. Until any of these are known, I stick with 84 million as that was the # mentioned before this Corona situation began. Tampa will make it work as they always have and keep their rfa's if they want to keep them. Since I believe Serg, Cirelli and Cernak are all a part of the team's current and future plans, and the fact that they all seem very happy to be a part of this organization, it seem more reasonable than not that they will all follow Tampa rfa suit and sign their bridges. After that, they will all get paid nicely on 8 year deals with Tampa, if they want to be with the team at that point. I'm not worried about magical offer sheets that supposedly all teams are going to offer them like candy, as not only are they extremely rare, but none of these players have ever indicated they want out of Tampa bc of $. Tampa will be fine, JBB is a cap specialist and it's not like this off seasons situation has just suddenly been sprung on him. He has been preparing for it for awhile now and no doubt he has a plan to keep the guys they need to keep.

There's a lot of questions, but whether or not the salary cap goes up to 84 million isn't one of them. It's not. At best it is staying flat, maybe even goes down. Really depends on whether or not playoffs happen, which I would put at unlikely, but even then, most of the teams missed five to seven home games, the NHL is a gate revenue league, and the cap is directly tied to revenue. A true salary cap for this year will probably come in at the ~60 million mark. They probably won't let that happen and will artificially set it because that murders every single team, even Ottawa, but I can't see them justifying a raise then either, because most NHL teams border on the brink of profitability anyway (including the Bolts!) and don't have the money unless they have benevolent owners. And considering how long it took everyone to pay their arena workers (and some who still aren't), not sure the owners are in a benevolent mood.

There's been nothing but baseless speculation that the cap is going down or staying the same. All these ppl saying it's a definite are just assuming. It may stay flat or go up to less than 84 but it won't be coming down. The season could still be completed and it's not like the whole season or even half was lost, if the reg season games aren't completed it was like 12-15%. If the cap does stay flat than a compliance buy out bbn is also very much anticipated so teams in tougher cap spots will also be fine. I still believe in a 84 million cap until further notice, and set Tampa's or anyone else's lineup accordingly.

Dude, the whole concept of an 84 million cap was speculation to begin with. That's not a confirmed number, that's just what they thought. It was based on revenue that they are now not getting. But even before that it was a meaningless number- they said it would be 84 last year, and it ended up being 81.5. Now they're saying it will 84 this year, and they're playing ten less games per team and missing the most profitable portion. There's nothing baseless about predicting the cap will go down- there is a formula for the cap: league revenue is split evenly 50/50 between players and owners, which sets a midpoint, and then there's a fixed percentage on either side of that midpoint to set the floor and ceiling. Most teams end up spending to the ceiling, which is why this is a problem. If the midpoint goes down, so does the ceiling. That's outlined in the CBA, which is on this website in full, look it up. There's no disputing that the cap is going down, because the NHL is losing revenue they thought they would get. That's objective fact. The question is whether, considering the circumstances, they'll agree on a different number, arbitrary of the cap formula, but that would require the owners to agree to not split revenue 50/50 and cede more to the players. And then you remember that this is also the league that decided to not play most or all of a season twice over pretty much this exact issue, and you see why the owners agreeing to that is probably not going to happen.

Compliance buyouts are nice but it still means real money has to be spent, even if it doesn't count against the cap, so owners have to be in a financial position to do that, and not all teams are. That also floods the market with free agents, some of whom will be very good and will sign for cheap (think Kevin Shattenkirk) and that will hurt teams like Tampa who need to trade guys who are already limited by people's contract clauses.

If you believe there's going to be any completion of the season you don't grasp how serious of a situation we're in right now. We'll be lucky if we get playoffs. It won't even be up to the league to decide to complete the season, it will be up to whether the governments will allow mass gatherings. Toronto just banned any public events until June 30th. Other cities will be doing the same, sooner or later. Not until July or August *at best* and then you're cutting into next season too, which means revenue lost in that season, which means you're trading revenue in one cap year for revenue in another, which solves nothing. And that's saying nothing of the economic impact COVID is having. Even if the season does resume, is there going to be the same amount of people who can afford to go to games? Are people going to still be cautious and avoid those public gatherings even if they are permitted to happen- especially if we just suppress an outbreak and not eliminate the virus? There is a ludicriously narrow path to an 84 million cap. I would think a pandemic would be enough further notice.