Get New Jersey Devils to Send Jeff Finger to the Minors

32 year old Dainius Zubrus is 6'5 225 lbs and
Plays Third Line Centre for New Jersey Devils

Brian Burke has expressed his preference to keep Jeff Finger on the Leafs if Nazem Kadri is assigned to the minors.  You can read more about it in James Mirtle's article published by The Globe & Mail on Monday.

Link to James Mirtle's article in Monday's Globe and Mail

Burke identifies some of the intangibles that benefit the Leafs from this approach.  I see one tangible loss from keeping Jeff Finger on the team.  The Leafs will lose close to $3 mil from next year's cap if Jeff Finger makes the team this year.

Here's how it works.  The Leafs are above their cap limit for salaries.  However, an NHL team can defer bonus payments to the next year's cap up to 7.5% of the current year cap.  That comes to $4.455 mil for this year.  Together, the contracts for Tyler Bozak and Luke Schenn provide up to $4.95 mil in bonuses.

So, with bonus deferrals, their is room for Jeff Fingers' contract.

Here is where it seems odd.  If Jeff Finger makes the team, it will be as the eighth defenceman.  It seems Burke believes he is better off having Jeff Finger as his eighth defenceman in place of selecting a spare from his pool of forwards.

I can only imagine the emotional response from Leafs Nation when they find out Jeff Finger made the team and the team's "eighth" defenceman is getting paid $3.5 mil.

Presently, the biggest hole in Toronto's lineup appears to be third line centre.  Ideally, Burke wants to fill this hole a big centre with offensive skills.  Wouldn't it would be nice if Burke can trade Jeff Finger for such a player?

There may be such an opportunity with New Jersey Devils.  A trade where Jeff Finger can help New Jersey with its cap problem and New Jersey can help Toronto with its third line centre problem.  Now, before declaring me certifiably insane, please read through the rest of this post. 

According to many reports, New Jersey may very well address it's cap problem by assigning Dainius Zubrus and Bryce Salvador to the minors.  This will cost the Devils $10.4 mil for Zubrus (three years at $3.4 mil per year) and $5.8 mil for Salvador (two years at $2.9 mil per year).  By the way, sending Jeff Finger to the minors will cost $7 mil (two years at $3.5 mil per year).

Dainius Zubrus happens to be New Jersey's third line centre.  He is 32 years old, 6'5 and 222 lbs.  Last year, in 51 games played, he scored 10 goals and 17 assists.  The previous year, he scored 15 goals and 25 assists in 82 games played.

There have been rumours about Toronto's interest in Zubrus.  Probably because it is difficult to get a third line centre with his size and skill.  The down side is his contract.  He has three years remaining at $3.4 mil per year.  Expensive for a third line centre and long for a 32 year old.  However, it is better than paying $3.5 mil for two years to your eighth defenceman.

The three years maybe too long if Burke believes Brayden Irwin (age 23) or Christian Hanson (age 24) can become the third line centre within one season.  If this is the case, he will simply "eat" Jeff Finger's contract.

Trading Zubrus for Finger will save New Jersey $3.4 mil if they intend to assign bad contracts to the minors.  Remember, Zubrus has $10.4 mil remaining on his contract while only $7 mil remains for Finger.  Whoever New Jersey demotes, will not have a chance to return to New Jersey next season because the Devils will have another cap problem next year when they renew Zach Parise's contract.

So, Brian Burke, get New Jersey Devils to send Jeff Finger to the minors if you can't bring yourself to do it.  You can get a big talented third line centre for the trouble.  If New Jersey does this for you, maybe you can get them to convince Tomas Kaberle to waive his no trade clause.

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Battle of the Fourth Defenceman - Will Leafs Make a Big Change to Defence?



Brian Burke Pursued Dan Hamhuis
This Summer to be
One of His Top Four Defencemen



If contracts mean anything, Toronto Maple Leafs already committed to three of their so-called top four defencemen.   Dion Phaneuf ($6.5 mil) and Mike Komisarek ($4.5 mil) have big cap hit contracts with four years remaining while Francois Beauchemin has two years remaining on a contract with $3.8 mil cap hit. . 

Although Luke Schenn is in the last year of his entry level contract, Leafs control him for an addition five years.  Tomas Kaberle is in the final year of his contract before he becomes an unrestricted free agent.

So, two questions beg to be asked:

1. Who is the fourth top four defencemen?
2. Who will be the fourth top four defencemen for the long term?  

As of training camp, Tomas Kaberle is paired with Mike Komisarek.  This implies he will be one of the four top four defencemen.  But, there is a dark cloud of uncertainty hanging over him.  How long will he remain one of the top four defencemen if this uncertainty doesn't get resolved?



If Kaberle remains on the path to becoming a UFA (Unrestricted Free Agent), he may decide it is in his best interest to play on a team with high scoring forwards.  This may compel him to waive his no-trade clause.  He may very well be traded during the season.

Luke Schenn is arguably one of the best defencemen prospects in hockey.  Although he has not played close to his potential, he is at an age where a player's development can advance rapidly.  Do the Leafs see him as an imminent top four defencemen or a very marketable player?  Perhaps both.  None the less, he is in the final year of his ETC (Entry Level Contract) which forces the Leafs to decide whether to give him top four playing time or cash in on his marketability.

Maybe, Burke is buying time for a third option to develop.  As it stands, there will be many top defencemen who will be a RFA (Restricted Free Agent) at the end of the season.  Drew Doughty, Brett Seabrook, Jack Johnson, and Shea Weber plus some UFAs in James Wisniewski and Andy Greene.  Remember, Burke did try to sign Dan Hamhuis this summer.

Ultimately, when making the decision for this year, Burke must decide by the end of this season on whether to commit to someone in the declining years of his career; unrealized potential; or top players in the prime of their career.  This provides plenty of incentive to have Kaberle as a top four guy at the start of the year in order to move him quickly and then transition to Schenn so as to assess his development.

However, I have this nagging feeling that Burke already decided on a third option.

You are welcome to contact me (Leafschatter) at Twitter.

Post script.  You can find other interesting posts relating to this topic at TML Fan Fury; Blue Chip Prospects; and Mike In Buffalo at HockeyBuzz. Three of several excellent hockey blogs I have been reading.

http://tmlfanfury.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-if-burke-decided-to-trade-luke.html

http://bluechipprospects.blogspot.com/2010/08/kaberle-stays-who-goes.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BlueChipProspects+%28Blue+Chip+Prospects%29

http://www.hockeybuzz.com/blog.php?post_id=30207

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How New Jersey Can Use Bonus Deferrals and Toronto To Fix Its Cap Problem

Do the Devils Have Enough Cap Space
Next Season to Renew Parise's Contract

New Jersey has two BIG cap problems.  First, they are over this years cap by approx $3 mil while needing to fill two more roster spots.  This makes the cap gap $4 mil if you assume they fill the last two spots at the $500k minimum salary. 

They also have a cap issue for next year.  They have approx $10.1 left in next year's cap with ten roster spots to fill.  Zach Parise is an RFA at the end of this year.  His salary for this season is $5 mil with a contract structure giving a $3.1 mil cap hit.

You can expect his new contract to create at least a $5.5 mil cap hit.  Thus, $4.6 mil in cap space with nine spots to fill.  The $4.6 mil space shrinks if New Jersey finds a way to maximize this season's bonus deferrals to address this year's cap problem.  A team can defer bonuses to next year's cap up to 7.5% of the current year's cap.  With its present contracts, New Jersey only has $750k of the allowable $4.455 mil bonuses available to defer.

Reports/rumours had Lou Lamoriello trying to trade Bryce Salvador (age 34 - two years remaining at $2.9 mil); Dainius Zubrus (age 32 - three years remaining at $3.4 mil); Brian Rolston (age 37 - two years remaining at $5 mil); and Jamie Langenbruner (age 35 - one year remaining at $2.8 mil) without success.  It has been suggested he believes other managers are not showing interest in these players as a way of punishing him for the Kovalchuk deal. 

He has even intimated/threatened that he will simply demote Zubrus and Salvador to the minors if he can't trade them implying money is not a concern.

Frankly, if this is the case, he should do it so he can solve this year's cap problem and have the cap space to resign Zach Parise without creating another cap problem next year.  Plus, he will have money left over to deal with Jamie Langenbruner and Jason Arnott when they become free agents at the end of the season.

However, reports of no initial contract discussions with Zach Parise give you a real reason to believe this option is not available to Lamoriello.  Furthermore, reports/rumours now have him quietly shopping around Travis Zajac (age 25 - three years remaining with $3,887,500 cap hit with salaries of $3.5/$4.5/$4.8 mil).

It seems like money may afterall be an issue for New Jersey.  Most managers can deal with a cap problem by sending a one way contract to the minors if it is in its final year and within $1 mil.  However, if it is a multi-million dollar contract with multiple years remaining, it better be a contract done by a previous manager such as the case with Jeff Finger or Cristobal Huet.  Otherwise, you have some explaining to do to the team's owner.  You will have to give your rational as to why you overpaid a player so greatly that no other team will take him from you.  This is not good for job security and best be avoided.



Looking at Kovalchuk's contract, you can tell New Jersey is carefully managing its budget.  At its peak, his salary is in the $11 to $11.8 mil range.  However, his salary is only $6 mil in the first two years before going up to $11 mil in the third year.  Coincidentally, Brian Rolston has two years remaining on his contract at $5 mil per year.  It almost makes you think New Jersey convinced Ilya to subsidize Rolston's salary.  If money wasn't a big issue, Ilya would be making $11 mil a year out of the gate.

So, trading marketable players such as Travis Zajac, Zach Parise, David Clarkson, and Jamie Langenbruner for your young high ceiling players who have contracts heavily loaded with bonuses may be Lou's only option of reducing the cap without putting (his) bad contracts in the minors.  You can call me crazy for including Zach Parise in this list.  However, if New Jersey maximizes its bonus deferrals, they won't have the cap space next year to sign Parise.  In fact, they will need to heavily utilize the bonus deferrals a second time.  By the way, a nice by-product of using the bonus

Brian Burke has prepared his team for this opportunity.  He has three players in particular:

• 
  
  Tyler Bozak - $3.725 mil cap hit - $2.85 mil bonus - $875k salary - one year
• 
  
  Luke Schenn - $2.975 mil cap hit - $2.1 mil bonus - $875k salary - one year
• 
  
  Nazim Kadri - $1.72 mil cap hit - $850k bonus - $870 salary - three years

To illustrate ane example, you can have a trade where Travis Zajac and Tyler Bozak are the two principals.  This would give New Jersey a cap savings (and salary) of $3.012 mil.  Of course, Zajac is the best player in the deal.  He is being called New Jersey's first line centre.  Myself, I would think that job goes to Zach Parise.  Not withstanding, Toronto would have to add some sweeteners to make help New Jersey save face.  If this is accomplished, New Jersey can shop Jamie Langenbruner for fair value to address the remaining cap gap of about $1 mil.  However, this solution only digs a deeper hole when it comes to the problem of resigning Zach Parise.

If New Jersey reaches the conclusion they simply won't have cap space next year to resign Zach Parise, then trading him becomes inevitable.  In other words, trading Zach Parise for high ceiling prospects like Luke Schenn and Nazim Kadri becomes viable.  Like the Travis Zajac scenario, you can address the remaining cap gap by trading/demoting one of the defencemen making under $800k and trading Jamie Langenbruner.  Perhaps, New Jersey gets Toronto to take one of their under $1 mil one-way contract defencemen as part of the trade.

In these scenarios, I assume Brian Burke will have to include additional top prospects and/or high draft picks to even it out for New Jersey since he is receiving the best player.  I will leave that speculation to you.  Never the less, the principals identified in both scenarios do address this year's cap problem for New Jersey and interest Toronto more than enough to part with their top prospects.  Remember, Toronto does not need to make a deal and New Jersey must do something to fix its cap problems of both this year and next year.

I do not envy Lou Lamoriello's situation.  It is almost comparable to Chicago's cap problem.

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Is Brian Burke Scheming to get Steven Stamkos for the Toronto Maple Leafs?

Will Burke "max cap" Stamkos?

I saw an interesting note on Labour Day in Eklund's blog (the anonymous hockey blogger).  A very interesting NHL trade rumour site.  The Toronto Maple Leafs have interest in Patrick O'Sullivan. 

How can this be?  They already have their centres lined up with Tyler Bozak, Mikhail Grabovski, Nazim Kadri, and Christian Hanson.  They already have exceeded their cap limit.  Sure, they can manage it by sending Jeff Finger to the minors and exercising some bonus deferrals where some bonuses get applied to next year's cap.  Furthermore, they already have signed 50 players.  The NHL limits you to 50 players signed to a contract.

What is going on?  The 50 player limit can easily be addressed as demonstrated with the Matt Lashoff trade.  You simply find a team with a low budget and too many players on a one-way contract.  As in the Matt Lashoff trade, you trade two of your low-end prospects who have two-way contracts for the one-way contract player and....poof....you have an open spot on your 50 man roster.

So, you tell me, don't go off topic.  What is going on?  Excellent question.  I simply couldn't make sense of it.  So, I went to http://www.capgeek.com/ and played with the Leafs cap calculator.  Capgeek wanker!!!

Then it dawned on me.  If the Leafs can sign Patrick O'Sullivan for under $1.5 million, they can demote Tyler Bozak to the minors (he is on a two-way contract) with Jeff Finger in order to meet their cap space limit without using their bonus deferral.

So what?  They meet this year's cap limit without using their bonus deferral.  What is the big deal?

By itself, approximately $2.15 million, it is not a big deal.  However, in the summer of 2011, when you also remove J. S. Giguerre ($6 million), Tomas Kaberle ($4.25), and Patrick O'Sullivan (let's call it $1.4 million for arguments sake) from the cap sheet, you start getting close to being in a position to offer a player a "max cap" contract.  A contract which has a cap hit of 20% of the team's cap which will be at least $11.88 million.

So what?  Burke would be crazy to offer "max cap" to any of the existing players on the 50 man roster.

Yes indeed, you are right.  It would be crazy.  However, maybe he can offer "max cap" to a free agent.  Are there any free agents available in 2011 worth "max cap" contracts?

Now.....I think I have your attention....I can think of two.  Steve Stamkos and Drew Doughty.  They are RFAs in 2011.  Does Tampa Bay have the financial means to match a qualifying offer of $11.88 million?  Do the Leafs have the first round draft picks to give as compensation?  According http://www.nhlscap.com/, four first round draft picks is the required compensation for this type of RFA signing.  Maybe a commenter will be kind enough to correct me if this wrong. 

Tampa may have a problem meeting a max cap deal.  After the 2011 draft, the Leafs have the first round draft picks to offer an RFA a "max cap" contract.

Perhaps, just having the possibility of a "max cap" offer to Steve Stamkos can bring Tampa Bay to the negotiating table.  After all, they had interest in Luke Schenn.  Perhaps, a package can be made where it is three first round draft picks, Luke Schenn, and Tyler Bozak for Steve Stamkos.  This isn't a prediction, but, simply speculation.  After all, Briank Burke had a similar situation with Boston over Phil Kessell.

If this turns out to be the grand plan, it will certainly upstage the abhorrent "Tank Nation" and vindicate Brian Burke on the Phil Kessell trade.  By the way, John Tavares is an RFA in 2012 plus Taylor Hall and Tyler Seguin are RFAs in 2013.

Post Script 28-Nov-2010

Steven Stamkos - Restricted Free Agent - Snubbed by Yzerman - Again!

Post Script 23-Jan-2011

How Brian Burke Gets Steven Stamkos

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Post Script 26-Oct-2010

Great article from James Mirtle on Leafs cap situation.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/sports/hockey/leafs-beat/making-sense-of-the-leafs-cap-situation/article1754464/

It expands on player bonuses.  In short, we should expect only $850k bonus payout each for Tyler Bozak and Luke Schenn.  Each of them are a cap hit of $1.725 mil.

Bonuses will total $1.87 mil.  As Mirtle concludes, Leafs have $3.96 mil in cap space before their $4.35 mil bonus cushion.

Also, bonus cushion is calculated on cap space after $1.4 mil carry-over bonus penalty has been deducted.  In other words, 7.5% of $58 mil instead of $59.4 mil.  This brings Toronto's bonus cushion to $4.35 mil.