St.L. Post Dispatch Article

[kimzey59]

Tex's contract is only a "problem" IF we re-sign Faksa and want to make a center upgrade.
You can't have Sunny, Joseph and Tex all riding the bench. Too many bodies and too much cap space taken up to allow that.

Having said that; IF we re-sign Faksa, I'd probably be more inclined to move Joseph. Tex is "functional" in the top 9 as an injury fill in(admittedly he's a streaky scorer but he can produce in spurts) and Sunny would fit right in on the WTF line(might even be able to ramp it for a stretch on the 3rd line if he's rested). MoJo has speed and is a really good locker room guy, but he just doesn't bring much on the ice.

[skilles]

Tex's contract is only a "problem" IF we re-sign Faksa and want to make a center upgrade.
You can't have Sunny, Joseph and Tex all riding the bench. Too many bodies and too much cap space taken up to allow that.

Having said that; IF we re-sign Faksa, I'd probably be more inclined to move Joseph. Tex is "functional" in the top 9 as an injury fill in(admittedly he's a streaky scorer but he can produce in spurts) and Sunny would fit right in on the WTF line(might even be able to ramp it for a stretch on the 3rd line if he's rested). MoJo has speed and is a really good locker room guy, but he just doesn't bring much on the ice.

There would be 2 many contracts so someone would have to be put on waivers but I believe we absolutely could still make a center upgrade without trading anyone.

Probably shouldn't do that but we could.

I got us at roughly 1.5 million left after signing Faksa and Hofer with 23 players not counting Krugs LTIR overage which would put us at 23 contracts and roughly 8 million left to spend with lots of money coming off the books the next 2 years plus the cap increasing a lot.

[Frank Barone]

Good article. First thing I went to see is if DeFranks accounted for Suter’s bonus overage and he did. Many think we only paid Suter league minimum $775k but we actually paid him $3M, which took us over the cap, even with Krug’s LTIR pool.

Suter had the potential of earning $2.225M in bonuses and he earned every single one of them. Here’s his bonus breakdown:
$225K for 10 GP
$400K for 30 GP
$500K for 40 GP
$600K for 60 GP
$500K for playoffs and at least 60 regular season GP

Looks like puckpedia has the overage for next season estimated at $2,153,475. That would indicate the Blues were only $71,525 under the cap when the regular season ended (before bonuses were applied).

One thing I’m curious about is if Bolduc hit any of his bonuses. Suter’s performance bonus details are out there but not Bolduc’s. So if he hit some of his bonuses as well, then the Blues’ bonus overage for next season would be even more.

The Blues have less cap room than I think many realize. That said, they also have only a couple open roster spots to fill. But they’ll likely need to trade away a guy or two if they truly want to add an impact player to the roster.

Good post, especially the part about Suter. Agree completely that Suter earned all his money. Question is whether the Blues can take the extra $2M+ in cap hit in the 24-25 season, or since they were in LTIR do they need to take it in 25-26?

[skilles]

Puck pedia has us at 22 players with $5,025,150 not counting LTIR

If you send Dvorsky down and sign Faksa at 2 million and Hofer at 3 million(hopefully over estimated) That puts us at $911,816 left + Krugs LTIR with a full 23 man roster

Maybe I'm misunderstanding as I'm still getting used to these newer cap sights but that is what I see.

So roughly 7,500,000-8 million left with a full roster.

[skilles]

"capwages" has us at $9,565,293 with a full 23 man roster if we sign Faksa and Hofer for 5 million

[skilles]

Good article. First thing I went to see is if DeFranks accounted for Suter’s bonus overage and he did. Many think we only paid Suter league minimum $775k but we actually paid him $3M, which took us over the cap, even with Krug’s LTIR pool.

Suter had the potential of earning $2.225M in bonuses and he earned every single one of them. Here’s his bonus breakdown:
$225K for 10 GP
$400K for 30 GP
$500K for 40 GP
$600K for 60 GP
$500K for playoffs and at least 60 regular season GP

Looks like puckpedia has the overage for next season estimated at $2,153,475. That would indicate the Blues were only $71,525 under the cap when the regular season ended (before bonuses were applied).

One thing I’m curious about is if Bolduc hit any of his bonuses. Suter’s performance bonus details are out there but not Bolduc’s. So if he hit some of his bonuses as well, then the Blues’ bonus overage for next season would be even more.

The Blues have less cap room than I think many realize. That said, they also have only a couple open roster spots to fill. But they’ll likely need to trade away a guy or two if they truly want to add an impact player to the roster.

I'm seeing Suter at $2,225,000 in bonuses and Bolduc at $412,500 in bonuses but I am not seeing how those bonuses put us over the cap, if we did it was a pretty big mistake to not put Leddy on LTIR

[STL fan in MN]

Good article. First thing I went to see is if DeFranks accounted for Suter’s bonus overage and he did. Many think we only paid Suter league minimum $775k but we actually paid him $3M, which took us over the cap, even with Krug’s LTIR pool.

Suter had the potential of earning $2.225M in bonuses and he earned every single one of them. Here’s his bonus breakdown:
$225K for 10 GP
$400K for 30 GP
$500K for 40 GP
$600K for 60 GP
$500K for playoffs and at least 60 regular season GP

Looks like puckpedia has the overage for next season estimated at $2,153,475. That would indicate the Blues were only $71,525 under the cap when the regular season ended (before bonuses were applied).

One thing I’m curious about is if Bolduc hit any of his bonuses. Suter’s performance bonus details are out there but not Bolduc’s. So if he hit some of his bonuses as well, then the Blues’ bonus overage for next season would be even more.

The Blues have less cap room than I think many realize. That said, they also have only a couple open roster spots to fill. But they’ll likely need to trade away a guy or two if they truly want to add an impact player to the roster.

Good post, especially the part about Suter. Agree completely that Suter earned all his money. Question is whether the Blues can take the extra $2M+ in cap hit in the 24-25 season, or since they were in LTIR do they need to take it in 25-26?

If you have the cap space available then the end of season bonuses would simply count against the current year’s cap. What DeFranks and puckpedia are saying here though is that the Blues didn’t have enough cap space and thus will be hit with a bonus overage penalty of $2,153,475 next season, which is almost all of Suter’s $2,225,000 bonus.

[STL fan in MN]

Good article. First thing I went to see is if DeFranks accounted for Suter’s bonus overage and he did. Many think we only paid Suter league minimum $775k but we actually paid him $3M, which took us over the cap, even with Krug’s LTIR pool.

Suter had the potential of earning $2.225M in bonuses and he earned every single one of them. Here’s his bonus breakdown:
$225K for 10 GP
$400K for 30 GP
$500K for 40 GP
$600K for 60 GP
$500K for playoffs and at least 60 regular season GP

Looks like puckpedia has the overage for next season estimated at $2,153,475. That would indicate the Blues were only $71,525 under the cap when the regular season ended (before bonuses were applied).

One thing I’m curious about is if Bolduc hit any of his bonuses. Suter’s performance bonus details are out there but not Bolduc’s. So if he hit some of his bonuses as well, then the Blues’ bonus overage for next season would be even more.

The Blues have less cap room than I think many realize. That said, they also have only a couple open roster spots to fill. But they’ll likely need to trade away a guy or two if they truly want to add an impact player to the roster.

I'm seeing Suter at $2,225,000 in bonuses and Bolduc at $412,500 in bonuses but I am not seeing how those bonuses put us over the cap, if we did it was a pretty big mistake to not put Leddy on LTIR

$412,500 is the max amount of performance bonus Bolduc could’ve earned. What we don’t know is if he hit any of his bonuses. Or all of them. Or none of them. His bonus details aren’t out there from what I can see. I’d bet he also hit at least some of his bonuses. But I’d also bet that amount is already factored into the $2,153,475 bonus overage puckpedia is showing.

You can’t use LTIR pool dollars on performance bonus overages so I don’t think putting Leddy on LTIR would’ve made any difference. Suter’s bonuses (and likely Bolduc’s as well) pushed the Blues over the cap and thus they’ll be penalized for it next season.

[bluetunehead]

Puck pedia has us at 22 players with $5,025,150 not counting LTIR

If you send Dvorsky down and sign Faksa at 2 million and Hofer at 3 million(hopefully over estimated) That puts us at $911,816 left + Krugs LTIR with a full 23 man roster

Maybe I'm misunderstanding as I'm still getting used to these newer cap sights but that is what I see.

So roughly 7,500,000-8 million left with a full roster.

You're correct in what you're seeing. With a roster of 13F, 7D, and 1G the Blues currently have about 5.9M in cap space. That takes into account the bonus overages. Once you sign Faksa and Hofer you have your 23 man roster with probably a bit less than 1M left (depending on how much they get). Putting Krug on LTIR opens up an additional roster spot and another 6.5M. So you're probably left with about 7.5M to sign somebody if you want.

Trades will change things up obviously, but there is plenty of room for maneuvering.

[Frank Barone]

Good article. First thing I went to see is if DeFranks accounted for Suter’s bonus overage and he did. Many think we only paid Suter league minimum $775k but we actually paid him $3M, which took us over the cap, even with Krug’s LTIR pool.

Suter had the potential of earning $2.225M in bonuses and he earned every single one of them. Here’s his bonus breakdown:
$225K for 10 GP
$400K for 30 GP
$500K for 40 GP
$600K for 60 GP
$500K for playoffs and at least 60 regular season GP

Looks like puckpedia has the overage for next season estimated at $2,153,475. That would indicate the Blues were only $71,525 under the cap when the regular season ended (before bonuses were applied).

One thing I’m curious about is if Bolduc hit any of his bonuses. Suter’s performance bonus details are out there but not Bolduc’s. So if he hit some of his bonuses as well, then the Blues’ bonus overage for next season would be even more.

The Blues have less cap room than I think many realize. That said, they also have only a couple open roster spots to fill. But they’ll likely need to trade away a guy or two if they truly want to add an impact player to the roster.

Good post, especially the part about Suter. Agree completely that Suter earned all his money. Question is whether the Blues can take the extra $2M+ in cap hit in the 24-25 season, or since they were in LTIR do they need to take it in 25-26?

If you have the cap space available then the end of season bonuses would simply count against the current year’s cap. What DeFranks and puckpedia are saying here though is that the Blues didn’t have enough cap space and thus will be hit with a bonus overage penalty of $2,153,475 next season, which is almost all of Suter’s $2,225,000 bonus.

Thanks for this explanation and the one below on Bolduc.

[STL fan in MN]

Puck pedia has us at 22 players with $5,025,150 not counting LTIR

If you send Dvorsky down and sign Faksa at 2 million and Hofer at 3 million(hopefully over estimated) That puts us at $911,816 left + Krugs LTIR with a full 23 man roster

Maybe I'm misunderstanding as I'm still getting used to these newer cap sights but that is what I see.

So roughly 7,500,000-8 million left with a full roster.

You're correct in what you're seeing. With a roster of 13F, 7D, and 1G the Blues currently have about 5.9M in cap space. That takes into account the bonus overages. Once you sign Faksa and Hofer you have your 23 man roster with probably a bit less than 1M left (depending on how much they get). Putting Krug on LTIR opens up an additional roster spot and another 6.5M. So you're probably left with about 7.5M to sign somebody if you want.

Trades will change things up obviously, but there is plenty of room for maneuvering.

The Blues would only get the full $6.5M to use if they started the season precisely with a cap hit at $95.5M. DeFranks correctly states it in his article:

If the Blues choose to use in-season LTIR with Krug, they would not have excess money (in addition to the estimated $3.412 million) to use in the summer. But they could construct a season-opening roster with Krug on it and do so as close to the $95.5 million cap in order to use as much of his $6.5 million cap hit. Every dollar the Blues are away from the cap is a dollar from Krug’s cap hit that they cannot use.

So let’s say the Blues end up with an opening roster with a cap hit of $93.5M counting Krug, and then put Krug on LTIR the next day. They’d have a LTIR pool of $4.5M then, not $6.5M.

Krug’s cap hit isn’t just a free $6.5M they have if they put him on LTIR. They have $0 - $6.5M depending on how they structure it. They’d have to be very precise to be able to use all or most of it.

[skilles]

Puck pedia has us at 22 players with $5,025,150 not counting LTIR

If you send Dvorsky down and sign Faksa at 2 million and Hofer at 3 million(hopefully over estimated) That puts us at $911,816 left + Krugs LTIR with a full 23 man roster

Maybe I'm misunderstanding as I'm still getting used to these newer cap sights but that is what I see.

So roughly 7,500,000-8 million left with a full roster.

You're correct in what you're seeing. With a roster of 13F, 7D, and 1G the Blues currently have about 5.9M in cap space. That takes into account the bonus overages. Once you sign Faksa and Hofer you have your 23 man roster with probably a bit less than 1M left (depending on how much they get). Putting Krug on LTIR opens up an additional roster spot and another 6.5M. So you're probably left with about 7.5M to sign somebody if you want.

Trades will change things up obviously, but there is plenty of room for maneuvering.

Yeah and if we bring someone in someone has to go out so we could probably acquire an 8.5-10 million dollar player.

I'm sure ownership does not want to pay that much for extra players though and we'll probably try to move someone out but we don't have to.

[bluetunehead]

Puck pedia has us at 22 players with $5,025,150 not counting LTIR

If you send Dvorsky down and sign Faksa at 2 million and Hofer at 3 million(hopefully over estimated) That puts us at $911,816 left + Krugs LTIR with a full 23 man roster

Maybe I'm misunderstanding as I'm still getting used to these newer cap sights but that is what I see.

So roughly 7,500,000-8 million left with a full roster.

You're correct in what you're seeing. With a roster of 13F, 7D, and 1G the Blues currently have about 5.9M in cap space. That takes into account the bonus overages. Once you sign Faksa and Hofer you have your 23 man roster with probably a bit less than 1M left (depending on how much they get). Putting Krug on LTIR opens up an additional roster spot and another 6.5M. So you're probably left with about 7.5M to sign somebody if you want.

Trades will change things up obviously, but there is plenty of room for maneuvering.

The Blues would only get the full $6.5M to use if they started the season precisely with a cap hit at $95.5M. DeFranks correctly states it in his article:

If the Blues choose to use in-season LTIR with Krug, they would not have excess money (in addition to the estimated $3.412 million) to use in the summer. But they could construct a season-opening roster with Krug on it and do so as close to the $95.5 million cap in order to use as much of his $6.5 million cap hit. Every dollar the Blues are away from the cap is a dollar from Krug’s cap hit that they cannot use.

So let’s say the Blues end up with an opening roster with a cap hit of $93.5M counting Krug, and then put Krug on LTIR the next day. They’d have a LTIR pool of $4.5M then, not $6.5M.

Krug’s cap hit isn’t just a free $6.5M they have if they put him on LTIR. They have $0 - $6.5M depending on how they structure it. They’d have to be very precise to be able to use all or most of it.

Totally correct. My point was what the Blues can theoretically go *up to* if they so desire without having to make any sort of big cap dump. It's obviously not totally straight forward when dealing with LTIR. But for instance, you could see the offseason play out like this... (numbers from PuckPedia)

• Start at 5.911M in cap space with 22 man roster (I'm not including Dvorsky, I'm assuming he's in Springfield again)
• Add Faksa and Hofer at 2.5M and 2.3M
  1.111M in cap space with 24 man roster
  
• Add Fabbro at 6M (we're just pretending, he's not getting that, but we need a young RHD)
  -4.888M in cap space with 25 man roster
  
• In anticipation of Day One and needing to get cap compliant before LTIR'ing Krug:
  Waive Kessel, Joseph, Texier (with plans to bring back up Joseph and Texier) - 3.1M cap savings
  Send down Snuggerud and Bolduc (on paper only) - 1.8M cap savings
  20 man roster that's roughly 25k below the cap before we use LTIR. Very close.
  
• LTIR Krug's 6.5M
• Call up Joseph, Texier, Snuggerud, and Bolduc
  14F, 7D, 2G 23 man roster
  2.411M in LTIR space still available

[skilles]

Puck pedia has us at 22 players with $5,025,150 not counting LTIR

If you send Dvorsky down and sign Faksa at 2 million and Hofer at 3 million(hopefully over estimated) That puts us at $911,816 left + Krugs LTIR with a full 23 man roster

Maybe I'm misunderstanding as I'm still getting used to these newer cap sights but that is what I see.

So roughly 7,500,000-8 million left with a full roster.

You're correct in what you're seeing. With a roster of 13F, 7D, and 1G the Blues currently have about 5.9M in cap space. That takes into account the bonus overages. Once you sign Faksa and Hofer you have your 23 man roster with probably a bit less than 1M left (depending on how much they get). Putting Krug on LTIR opens up an additional roster spot and another 6.5M. So you're probably left with about 7.5M to sign somebody if you want.

Trades will change things up obviously, but there is plenty of room for maneuvering.

The Blues would only get the full $6.5M to use if they started the season precisely with a cap hit at $95.5M. DeFranks correctly states it in his article:

If the Blues choose to use in-season LTIR with Krug, they would not have excess money (in addition to the estimated $3.412 million) to use in the summer. But they could construct a season-opening roster with Krug on it and do so as close to the $95.5 million cap in order to use as much of his $6.5 million cap hit. Every dollar the Blues are away from the cap is a dollar from Krug’s cap hit that they cannot use.

So let’s say the Blues end up with an opening roster with a cap hit of $93.5M counting Krug, and then put Krug on LTIR the next day. They’d have a LTIR pool of $4.5M then, not $6.5M.

Krug’s cap hit isn’t just a free $6.5M they have if they put him on LTIR. They have $0 - $6.5M depending on how they structure it. They’d have to be very precise to be able to use all or most of it.

That seems pretty easy for the Blues to manipulate.

I suspect the Blues will be trying to move Texier and/or Joseph either way from a business model stand point. While I don't care at all if Joseph gets paid to sit in the press box all year I'm sure the folks signing the checks disagree.

[DawgDad]

Just imagine how many times Army had run this and other scenarios.

[STL fan in MN]

Puck pedia has us at 22 players with $5,025,150 not counting LTIR

If you send Dvorsky down and sign Faksa at 2 million and Hofer at 3 million(hopefully over estimated) That puts us at $911,816 left + Krugs LTIR with a full 23 man roster

Maybe I'm misunderstanding as I'm still getting used to these newer cap sights but that is what I see.

So roughly 7,500,000-8 million left with a full roster.

You're correct in what you're seeing. With a roster of 13F, 7D, and 1G the Blues currently have about 5.9M in cap space. That takes into account the bonus overages. Once you sign Faksa and Hofer you have your 23 man roster with probably a bit less than 1M left (depending on how much they get). Putting Krug on LTIR opens up an additional roster spot and another 6.5M. So you're probably left with about 7.5M to sign somebody if you want.

Trades will change things up obviously, but there is plenty of room for maneuvering.

The Blues would only get the full $6.5M to use if they started the season precisely with a cap hit at $95.5M. DeFranks correctly states it in his article:

If the Blues choose to use in-season LTIR with Krug, they would not have excess money (in addition to the estimated $3.412 million) to use in the summer. But they could construct a season-opening roster with Krug on it and do so as close to the $95.5 million cap in order to use as much of his $6.5 million cap hit. Every dollar the Blues are away from the cap is a dollar from Krug’s cap hit that they cannot use.

So let’s say the Blues end up with an opening roster with a cap hit of $93.5M counting Krug, and then put Krug on LTIR the next day. They’d have a LTIR pool of $4.5M then, not $6.5M.

Krug’s cap hit isn’t just a free $6.5M they have if they put him on LTIR. They have $0 - $6.5M depending on how they structure it. They’d have to be very precise to be able to use all or most of it.

Totally correct. My point was what the Blues can theoretically go *up to* if they so desire without having to make any sort of big cap dump. It's obviously not totally straight forward when dealing with LTIR. But for instance, you could see the offseason play out like this... (numbers from PuckPedia)

• Start at 5.911M in cap space with 22 man roster (I'm not including Dvorsky, I'm assuming he's in Springfield again)
• Add Faksa and Hofer at 2.5M and 2.3M
  1.111M in cap space with 24 man roster
  
• Add Fabbro at 6M (we're just pretending, he's not getting that, but we need a young RHD)
  -4.888M in cap space with 25 man roster
  
• In anticipation of Day One and needing to get cap compliant before LTIR'ing Krug:
  Waive Kessel, Joseph, Texier (with plans to bring back up Joseph and Texier) - 3.1M cap savings
  Send down Snuggerud and Bolduc (on paper only) - 1.8M cap savings
  20 man roster that's roughly 25k below the cap before we use LTIR. Very close.
  
• LTIR Krug's 6.5M
• Call up Joseph, Texier, Snuggerud, and Bolduc
  14F, 7D, 2G 23 man roster
  2.411M in LTIR space still available

Yep, you got it.

Although I’d be disappointed if they went out and got someone like Fabbro and didn’t add a center at all. But yes, that’s the sort of maneuvering I expect to take place. Going to prepare for it now - lots of Blues fans shocked and complaining when Bolduc and Snuggerud don’t make the opening roster…and then they’re recalled the next day and play the first game.