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The Rumour of Souray to Caps for Theodore and the "Cap Fix Chip" Player. |
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As I continue to work on the soon to launch NHL Trade Deadline Rumor Chart I wanted to throw this (somewhat) new concept that is sweeping through the scouts and GMs as we head into this season's deadline. The concept was described to me as Cap Fix Chips.
This is nothing new, last season we saw Scottie Upshall moved as a CFC among others. A player that goes the other way for Cap purposes.
This season, as the margin for most teams to what they can spend is virtually vanishing, more and more I am hearing about possible deals that include CFCs...
Here are the latest interesting rumors...
The Edmonton Oilers are sellers. I am told in full force they are considering moving to all young players and hoping for a Taylor Hall/Jordan Eberle 10-11. It makes sense. Hall is the absolute perfect fit in Edmonton. A superstar who they can draft instead of trying to lure him away via free agency. The Oilers are trying to move Souray, but they can only do so by taking someone else's money back..
I heard this morning that Souray and a pick could be headed to Washington for Theodore, Fehr, and Canadian World Junior Player/Tazmanian Devil Stefan Della Rovere plus a second and fourth round pick.
The trade rumor is interesting on several levels. It would definitely give the Caps some power/experience from the backend in Souray, and the space would be cleared by Jose Theodore's contract.
I also heard a similar rumor where Theodore and prospects could go to Toronto for Kaberle.
Theodore is in many ways the definition of a Cap Fix Chip.
A source I spoke to at length last night at the Flyers/Leafs game said that we should maybe expect more deals along these lines than we have seen in the past.
"A player like Theodore, being a goalie is a definite risk. But if the Caps are going to go with the Russian kid, and perhaps pick up a veteran backup like Biron or even Halak, this deal makes sense," my source continued, "But were I you I would be tracking down the players with big contracts on contenders who are about to become UFA's. Players who are playing only minor roles on teams that will have money to spend this summer so that they can keep the incoming player around."
So, for example, in this case Souray is a 5.4 million dollar cap hit this year and next.
The Caps trade Theodore at a 4.5 hit, but he is UFA come July 1. Fehr is around 750K, a pending RFA, but has some upside for the Oilers, and Della Rovere, who is under 1 as well and set with three years on a rookie contract. The draft picks are the draft picks.
The money is almost a wash for the Caps (no pun intended) and the Caps are still left with around 4 million pro-rated Cap money (no pun intended either) to get a Biron or Halak and still have space left. The Caps can afford to keep Souray around next year with the money that is coming off the Cap from certain other UFAs/RFAs they would be willing to walk away from. The Caps have extended Semin and have to deal with Backstrom this summer.
"But it may be easier to keep guys around if you believe that Souray helps you raise the Trophy," my source concluded.
So who are some of these other Cap Fix Chips...like Theodore? Let's try to really define a Cap Fix Chip.
To be a Cap Fix Chip (CFC) a player must:
*Make around the same amount of money as the player that the contender is trading for.
*Be a pending UFA so that the team picking him up can free up the space that otherwise would be tied into the player that they are trading.
*Since this player is coming FROM a contender, the player needs to be replaceable either internally or through another deal that brings in a cheaper player than the CFC.
*If the player has a NTC or NMC, he must be willing to help their current contending team out by waiving any NTC to play out the year on a team that is out of it and just wait to become a UFA.
Usually when looking for trade clues we look at rentals. Players that are UFAs next year and currently on teams that are out of it. These players are being moved to contenders.
When looking for Cap Fix Chips you aren't looking at teams that are sellers, you are looking at buyers.
So finally, I kind of quickly compiled this list. I am sure it is far from perfect. I simply looked at the coming UFAs on the teams that I felt were still contenders (as of now) and asked the question:
Who among those players would you be willing to throw into a trade to help even out the cap hit if say you were trading for a "game changer"...say a Scott Niedermayer or an Ilya Kovalchuk?
Since most contenders are up against the Salary Cap (either the NHL's or their own team's internal number) you need to move a player to bring in that game changer.
Other possible Cap Fix Chips would include...
Olli Jokinen 6.0 M
Derek Morris 3.3
Henrik Tallinder 3.25
Toni Lydman 3.15
Mike Modano 2.25
Fernando Pisani 2.5
Mike Comrie 1.2
Randy Jones 1.5
Marek Zidlicky 3.5
Owen Nolan 2.75
Kim Johnsson 5.3
Eric Belanger 1.75
Petr Sykora 1.6
Dan Hamhuis 2.5
Dan Ellis 2.0
Andy Sutton 3.5
Martin Biron 1.4
Doug Weight 2.0
Chris Higgins 2.25
Adrian Aucoin 2.25
Mark Eaton 2.0
Ruslan Fedotenko 1.8
Paul Kariya 6.0
Carlo Colaiacovo 1.4
Alex Tanguay 2.5
Jeff Halpern 2.0
Mike Can Ryn 3.35
Lee Stempniak 3.5
Alexei Ponikarovsky 2.5
Matt Stajan 1.75
Garnet Exelby 1.7
Brad Lukowich 1.8
Shane O'Brien 1.6
Mathieu Schneider 1.5
Jose Theodore 4.5
Brian Pothier 2.5
Shaone Morrison 1.98
Brendan Morrison 1.5
more to come...
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