By now you have all heard that Henrik is coming back. I have been out of “posting” range till now so im a little late to the dance. Still though, Henrik taking 4.25 million dollars for 1 year shows the team he is willing to “take one for the team” so we can win now. with Henrik taking 4.25 million that leaves roughly 2.5 million for Sean Avery and Marcel Hossa. I sincerely doubt they can sign both for that amount. You have to believe Avery wants 2-2.5 alone. And Hossa is probably looking for .8-1 so even on the low end it doesnt work. Either Marcel will be traded/walk, 1 or both sign a less lucrative contract so both can stay, or there is a move forthcoming.
Edit:
Thanks to Kodiak of the HFBoards for this useful analysis we can see the updated cap totals…
| Player Name | Cap Hit |
| Gomez | $7.357 |
| Drury | $7.05 |
| Shanahan | $5.3* |
| Jagr | $4.94 |
| Straka | $3.3 |
| Cullen | $2.875 |
| Prucha | $1.6 |
| Betts | $.615 |
| Callahan | $.575 |
| Orr | $.538 |
| Hollweg | $.513 |
| Mara | $3 |
| Malik | $2.5 |
| Rozsival | $2.1 |
| Tyutin | $.988 |
| Girardi | $.75** |
| Pock | $.668 |
| Strudwick | $.5 |
| Lundqvist | $4.25 |
| Valiquette | $.618 |
| Total | $50.037 |
| Remaining | $.263 |
| Bonuses | $3 |
| Total Less Bonuses | $47.037 |
| Remaining less Bonuses: | $3.263 |
*Shanahan’s contract contains an additional $2.8 mil in performance bonuses.
**Girardi’s contract has $200k in performance bonuses.
All performance bonuses count against the cap this year. A team can exceed the salary cap by $3.77 mil to pay these performance bonuses, but any excess will be dead cap space for the 08-09 season.
Other Notable Contracts (not counted towards the above total):
| Player Name | Cap Hit |
| Kasparaitis | $2.989 |
| Staal | $.827 |
| Montoya* | $1.834 |
| Korpikoski | $1.018 |
| Moore | $.725 |
| Byers | $.608 |
| Bourret | $.85 |
| Dubinsky | $.633 |
| Baranka | $.522 |
| Liffiton | $.579 |
| Dawes | $.496 |
*Montoya has $850k in performance bonuses.
Remaining Free Agents
Avery
Hossa
$3.263 Million should in fact be enough to get both Avery and Hossa but leaving us with little to no wiggle room for call ups and the like. A move is still highly likely, though no longer a given.
Again, all credit here goes to Kodiak for compiling this highly useful information.
-Inferno