Say it louder for the people in the back. His contract is actually a decently valuable asset.

Some folks seem so obsessed with LTIR and their meaning or lack of meaning to the cap. All sign and trades should be banned too. Can't think of good trade for an upcoming. UFA, just added "sign and trade"

NOT LITRing Hossa provides the Hawks with more cap flexibility prior to the season start. That's the issue. Best thing is to move him to Car or AZ or the likes basically with zero in return or with giving up anything more. It's a gain for both sides of pretty equal value so no other pieces should really be considered.

You're allowed to be 10 percent over the salary cap before the LTIR window opens. So say the cap is $80M. The hawks can go to $88M if they have $8M worth of LTIR players. Here is a quote from the LTIR FAQ on this site:

Yes, LTIR can be used in the off-season while the 10% off-season cushion is active. LTIR in the off-season is calculated using the basic equation outlined above, which permits a team to exceed the off-season salary cap. To use off-season LTIR the team must provide doctors proof that the player in question will continue to be injured at the beginning of the regular season for 10 NHL games and 24 calendar days.

At the start of the season the teams LTIR relief & ACSL is recalculated when the 10% cushion is removed.

Again, the Hawks need to break camp every year for the next THREE years at least 5 million dollars under the cap. For a team that is already close to the cap, they need all the room they can get. His contract is not an asset.

That's not true. The Hawks have been the #1 revenue generating team in the league. Last 9 seasons the most attendance and ticket sales by a country mile over any other team....sold out every game above capacity. Merchandising is in the top 3 in the league. The Hawks are not in cap trouble at all and the owners every year will spend all the way to the cap. I agree they need to leave a couple million under this season to sign Schamtlz, Debrincatt and Sikura next year and the following but that's all as the cap will go up again to $82M next year and again the following year. Hawks are not in a bad cap spot.

True,they can be over by Hossa's cap hit, but it's easier for them to move him and not deal with it year over year to a team that needs to reach the floor.

If they can move him for a decent return I'm all for it. Floor teams like AZ or cheap owners like Melnyk in OTT would probably like only having to pay 1 million actual cash for a 5.275 million cap hit.

That's why I think the Hawks can be smart about and look at taking an asset like Darling off of Carolina's hand in exchange for Hossa and a prospect assuming Car retains on Darling north of $1.5M. I don't see the Hawks doing an isolated move on Hossa alone, it would be burried in a trade with taking back something another team doesn't want.

Hossa cap hit counts towards the cap on Day 1, at least if they want all 5 million to be recaptured. Revenue has nothing to do with it. The fact is, even though they have an 80 million dollar cap. It is more like 75 cause of Hossa.

That's wrong. They LITR him day one and $5M is removed. Any team can be up to 10% over the cap as of day 1 equal to a player that is being LITR'd for the season.

All you have to do is leave a few guys in the AHL until the season starts. You LTIR Hossa and bring them up. I did a part two where I go into detail about the moves I had to make to maximize the LTIR for 19-20. It's actually kind of fun to play around with.

Having Hossa on LTIR doesn't make a any difference even when the player during the summer. The Leafs had 10.5 m of Horton and Lupul, on LTIR, and it didn't affect them to spend another 75m last summer. The only way LTIR cap is it might affect when a team performance bonuses. That's it. Teams aren't punished cap wise for having players on LTIR. So there is maybe just a slight difference in cap flexibility but really only if a team lots of perfomances bonus to pay.