Photo credit: Walter Tychnowicz-Imagn Images
With the new NHL CBA rules in effect this season, teams will be looking for ways to bend them to their advantage, with one in particular which is being referred to as the ‘nuclear option’.
New salary cap rules could affect high-priced talent
In short, the nuclear option would be sitting an under-performing, but high-priced veteran in the playoffs to make room for lower-priced, but more effective player.
In a recent podcast, Panthers’ Asst. GM Steve Werier said this in reference to this new strategy:
«We’ll see that maybe this year alone with some of these new rules around game-by-game playoff rosters… where you might find teams saying, ‘You know what? We can really load up differently at the deadline, because we can plan to maybe scratch an expensive player during the playoffs and have some cap benefits to manage our roster that way.'”
Beginning this post-season, all teams must now be cap compliant every game ($95.5M), thereby eliminating the possibility of having a player come off the LTIR and also have his replacement in the lineup, as Florida did in last season’s playoffs with Brad Marchand and Matthew Tkachuk.
For example, Edmonton could choose to sit-out struggling players like Darnell Nurse, Trent Frederic and Andrew Mangiapane, almost $18M in salaries, and replace them with low-priced prospects like Quinn Hutson, Roby Jarventie and Ike Howard, all of whom are excelling in the AHL.
This strategy could also be used to convince high-priced, low-producing vets to waive their no-movement clauses, if they were told they’d be sitting in the press box during the playoffs, instead of competing for the Stanley Cup.
With this being the first year of the new CBA, it will be interesting to see which teams will be using the salary-cap loophole, and how it affects those assigned to the press-box.
Previously on Edmonton Hockey Daily
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Oilers can easily save near $4M in salary cap for playoff lineup
Should Oilers use the NHL nuclear option to sit-out high-priced, under-performing players?