Who Has Space Under the NHL Salary Cap?

Below is a rough estimate of the amount of each team's salary commitments for their current 20 man roster. You can use these numbers to get a feel for which teams have the most room under the NHL Salary Cap (just subtract the current salary commitment from $56 million).

The data source for this list comes from Irish Blues great site NHLSCAP.com. I used my own judgment as to which players would be on each team's 20 roster today. I also included the cap hits for bought out players. In the case of some teams I just had to pick among guys on the depth chart--in most cases it doesn't affect the cap commitment number much because they all make comparatively little (by NHL standards).

This list displays the MINIMUM salary commitment required to fill out a roster using only players under contract (plus buyouts or other cap hits). Keep in mind there are two additional factors that will cause those figures to end up being higher:

1. Virtually every team will end up with a cap number higher than this once their RFA are re-signed and player arbitration. (To give you a feel for who might have to hand out some big bucks to RFA I have listed players who might be in line for a significant raise.)
2. Most NHL teams will carry more than the minimum 20 roster players, in fact, some teams will carry the maximum number of 21 (and if those bench players make the minimum NHL salary of $475,000 you can tack on an addition $1.5 million to that team's cap number).
3. There are some UFA (unrestricted free agents) that are likely to only re-sign with their current team such as Chelios and Sakic. I have put them in with the RFA but but () around them.
   

NHL Salary Cap Commitments Pre-Free Agency
$53.8 Million Anaheim.........RFAs: C. Perry
$51.3 Million Philadelphia....RFAs: J. Carter, Emminger
$50.6 Million Dallas..............RFAs: L. Eriksson
$48.7 Million Boston.............RFAs: M. Stuart
$48.3 Million Calgary............RFAs: (Langkow is rumored to signed a contract)
$47.1 Million St. Louis...........RFAs: McClement, Woywitka
$47.0 Million San Jose...........RFAs: Ehrhoff, Clowe, Pavelski, Goc
$46.0 Million Ottawa.............RFAs: Vermette, Meszaros
$46.0 Million Edmonton........RFAs: Stoll, Pitkanen
$46.0 Million Nashville..........RFAs: Bochenski
$45.8 Million Carolina............RFAs: Ruutu
$44.3 Million Montreal..........RFAs: A. Kostsitsyn
$44.3 Million Toronto............RFAs: Wellwood, Stajan
$43.1 Million Minnesota........RFAs: P.M. Bouchard, K. Foster
$43.1 Million New Jersey
$42.6 Million Washington......RFAs: M. Green
$42.7 Million Tampa Bay
$42.1 Million Buffalo...............RFAs: Gaustad, Bernier, Paille, MacArthur
$42.0 Million Detroit..............RFAs: Filppula (Chelios)
$41.5 Million Florida..............RFAs: Bouwmeester, Olesz
$40.2 Million Phoenix............RFAs: J. Perreault, Marcel Hossa
$39.9 Million Rangers............RFAs: Dawes, G. Moore, Sjostrom
$39.3 Million Pittsburgh........RFAs: Fleury, T. Brent (Malkin is a RFA next summer)
$39.3 Million Vancouver
$37.9 Million Chicago..............RFAs: R. Bourque
$35.2 Million Islanders...........RFAs: Bergenheim, Gervais
$33.9 Million Colorado............RFAs: Svatos, Wolski (Sakic)
$33.6 Million Kings..................RFAs: O'Sullivan
$32.4 Million Atlanta...............RFAs: Lehtonen
$30.6 Million Columbus..........RFAs: Umberger, LeClaire, Fritsche

Comments: I don't watch as much Western Conference hockey but the Flames have a lot of money committed already and their bottom six forwards look remarkably weak. Now they can sign some checkers on the cheap. St. Louis, Edmonton and Toronto all have the highest cap commitments given that they all missed the playoffs. Teams that missed the playoffs with a lot of cap room to work with include the Blue Jackets, Thrashers and Kings.