After mentioning Brandon Dubinsky in yesterday's post I got lots of feedback saying that he would not play in the NHL again. I had been reading headlines about him being traded to free up cap space to sign PLD, which made me ignorantly assume that he would be playing again. In fact, all signs point to the fact that he will not.

Given his time on the ice is finished, what should the CBJ do about his contract? It seems that there are a few options. The first is LTIR.

If a player has a long term injury/illness that will keep them out at least 24 days and 10 NHL games the team can get relief from their salary against the salary cap. Great, so Columbus puts him on LTIR and gets about $6M in cap space. I wish it was that simple, it is not. There is an article at Cap Friendly that explains the calculations in depth if you want to try to understand it completely: https://www.capfriendly.com/ltir-faq

Here is a YouTube video that tries to explain the sited Cap Friendly article too:



I'm going to try to explain what I think I understand, I may be wrong and have interpreted it incorrectly but...

The gist of it is that if you are at the Cap Limit you can add another player of equal or lesser value than the player on the LTIR. It's best to use an example with simple numbers to illustrate.

Cap Limit = $80M
Team Salary = $79M
Player 'A' Salary = $5M

If Player 'A' is placed on LTIR the team Cap Limit is extended by the player's salary minus any available cap space. In this case the player salary is $5M and the cap space available is $1M. So, $4M is added to the teams Cap Limit. The player's salary is not removed from the Team Salary. That is a key point. The Team Salary stays at $79M and Cap Limit is extended to $84M. This gives the team an additional $5M in cap space to add another roster player.

I say all that to reach the conclusion that this does not help Columbus as they are well below the Cap Limit and would not get relief from Dubi's contract. That's why there are trade rumors including him...

A team at the Cap Limit would be interested in rostering Dubi and placing him on LTIR in order to get relief from his salary. Thus his contract has some value to teams having trouble getting under the salary cap.

Another option is to just have his salary count against the Cap Limit, which in this case is the same as placing him on LTIR.

In conclusion....

This all seems like creative accounting with fuzzy math. Placing a player on LTIR helps teams that spend to the Cap Limit, but does very little for those that are well below the limit. If this has all confused you then you are in the same boat as me. I didn't know you needed to be an accountant to determine your team's salary cap hit. Regardless, if the Jackets want additional cap space their best option is to trade Dubinsky.

For those of you who are more familiar with this, let me know if I got it right. I will admit, this is not my strong suit.

Join the Discussion: » 9 Comments » Post New Comment

» Eichel to Columbus? I've heard crazier things...I guess

» Everything Must GO!

» Laine Debate

» Does Tarasov make Elvis expendable?

» Up and Back Down