Atlanta's cap room pays off

by James Mirtle on Sep 27, 2008 9:59 AM CDT Comment 6 comments

"It's the new NHL, my friend.
It's nice to have cap room."
— Thrashers GM Don Waddell

It does work out nicely for Atlanta, but I find it a little funny that Waddell's playing his $15-million or so in cap space off as part of some grand master plan.

A lot of teams had enough cap room for Mathieu Schneider and didn't bite when he was available for nothing.

Here's the Toronto Star's Damien Cox on the Ducks' side of the deal:

So without the cap, the Ducks would still have McDonald and Schneider, with Ryan available to play high in their lineup.

In a cap world, however, McDonald and Schneider are gone, and it may be impossible for the club to use Ryan in the short-term.

Quite honestly, I'm surprised Anaheim is spending as much as they are right now and don't for a second believe they would be up in the $65-million range without a cap to work under.

Schneider getting shipped out was pretty much an inevitability once Scott Niedermayer returned to the lineup last season, as the plan was never to have all three of Schneider, Niedermayer and Pronger clogging up the salary structure.

That it took this long to deal Schneider is perhaps the biggest surprise there.

Andy McDonald, meanwhile, was a casualty of the fact that Todd Bertuzzi had a two-year, $8-million albatross of a contract. Had Brian Burke not inked that boneheaded deal, McDonald's $3.33-million salary would have easily fit, especially last season.

The biggest thing in all this to blame the cap on? The fact that Schneider was so incredibly hard to move. If there wasn't a ceiling, there'd be plenty of well-moneyed takers.

As it turned out, it was only the teams on a tight budget who got in the bidding.
.

0 recs | Comment 6 comments

Story-email Email Printer Print

Comments

Please don't get into the habit of quoting Damien Cox. It's no surprise that he doesn't like the Ducks side of the deal -- he's assuming Burke is the next Leafs GM, so he's already finding fault with everything he does.

I'm sure I'm not the only one who reads blogs like yours precisely to get away from the predictable cookie-cutter material of guys like Cox.

by Down Goes Brown on Sep 27, 2008 11:16 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I was surprised the Ducks signed Schneider in the first place as this always seemed inevitable.
Also quite surprised Schneider did not wind up in LA.

by the-jumbotron1 on Sep 27, 2008 11:30 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

"...didn't bite when he was available for nothing."

Am I missing something here? Why didn't Atlanta take him when he was available for nothing?

by Jeremy on Sep 27, 2008 11:41 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

Am I missing something here? Why didn't Atlanta take him when he was available for nothing?

Because they sent a bunch or worthless parts back that made the overall impact of absorbing schnieder's contract smaller than an out-and-out waiver claim would have.

by VeryProudofYa on Sep 27, 2008 11:46 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

So what is Waddell gloating about then?
Why didn't he just hang on to Zhitnik instead?

by Anonymous on Sep 27, 2008 11:48 AM CDT reply actions 0 recs

I think they were just hoping he'd come back the re-entry waivers... just like every other team with interest. Schnieder for 2.5 or so is a steal, 5.5, not so much!

by Ryan on Sep 27, 2008 6:42 PM CDT reply actions 0 recs