NHL team salary cap rankings: #8-1
Finally, we’ve reached the end of the salary cap rankings. These teams are the best of the best at managing the cap or at least making it work to the point where they can succeed in spite of a tight fit. These teams still aren’t perfect (in fact, not a single team in these rankings finishes in the top 20 in every category), but there are far fewer mistakes than the teams below them commit.
If you want to catch up on the rankings so far, we’ve covered teams 32-25, teams 24-17, and teams 16-9, and if you need a refresher on how the system used to create this ranking works, check out the guide to it here.
And as always, a reminder that these rankings do not include any cap moves past Sept. 7, so recent contracts to Spencer Knight and Nathan MacKinnon aren’t considered.
8. Dallas Stars
Good Contract Percentage: 19th
Quality Cheap Deals: 23rd
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 14th
Dead Cap Space: 2nd
Quality of Core: 3rd
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 6th
The Stars may have two of the worst contracts in the league at this point, but they’ve also had a bit of a youth resurgence to allow them to navigate around those contracts and be competitive both on the ice and in the finance books. Combine that with some smart free agent signings, and it puts them in this top tier.
Of course, there is one caveat to their rankings: Jason Robertson still hasn’t been signed as preseason games have begun. Regardless of the salary, it will be a good contract as he is one of four Stars players that are considered elite. It could’ve made Dallas’ score look even better if it was signed. It’s hard to improve on the quality of the Stars’ core, which is the third best in the league, and the core signees would grade out even better if Tyler Seguin’s contract wasn’t one of the three involved, as Mason Marchment and Miro Heiskanen are both elite players at the moment according to my model.
The bad contracts are what really hurt this team, as the Stars are very inconsistent when it comes to handing them out, especially the pricier ones. Along with Seguin, Jamie Benn’s $9.5 million AAV contract looks brutal as both players have regressed to a fourth-line level at this point in their careers. Radek Faksa comes out as the team’s worst forward but still has three years left at $3.25 million, and both Esa Lindell and Ryan Suter’s contracts aren’t ideal on the back end either. The Stars also don’t have a ton of options as far as quality cheap depth, so that will make it even tougher for them to work around the inevitable cap crunch when Robertson is finally locked up, along with Roope Hintz’s contract that expires at the end of the season.
7. Calgary Flames
Good Contract Percentage: 1st
Quality Cheap Deals: 30th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 22nd
Dead Cap Space: 2nd
Quality of Core: 6th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 4th
It’s not often a team can lose two elite forwards in one offseason and still come out sitting pretty, but the Flames did just that after losing Matthew Tkachuk and Johnny Gaudreau. It helps that they got an elite defenseman in MacKenzie Weegar and a first-line forward in Jonathan Huberdeau in the return for Tkachuk and signed another first-line forward in Nazem Kadri in free agency, but they also had a good foundation set in place that helped them endure this drastic makeover to the top end of their lineup.
What really helps the team is that they have the best good contract percentage in the league, highlighted by the fact that they have just three bad deals: Milan Lucic, who has just one year left; Kevin Rooney, who comes out as replacement level so even $1.3 million is too much; and Nikita Zadorov, a bottom pairing defender making top-four money. It helps that Darryl Sutter’s system has elevated the play of pretty much everyone on this team, but Flames general manager Brad Treliving has also done a solid job of cleaning out the bad deals, like the Sean Monahan trade to Montreal last month. They also find themselves with a strong core locked up, with the lone red flag there being that Rasmus Andersson is the only player under 30 either right now or in the case of Huberdeau, when their extension kicks in.
The Flames have two glaring weaknesses at this point, the biggest being that they are tied for the fewest quality cheap deals in the league with three, which combined with an aging core is probably not the best recipe for long-term success. They also have a lot of no-trade/no-move clauses, with a lot of them going to that aging core, so once those older pieces fall off, it’s going to be very difficult to navigate. But the Flames thought they were going to need to rebuild at one point, so that fact that they’re still one of the best teams in the league is a miracle, and I’m sure they’ll take it even if it comes with an earlier expiration date.
6. Vegas Golden Knights
Good Contract Percentage: 9th
Quality Cheap Deals: 21st
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 25th
Dead Cap Space: 2nd
Quality of Core: 2nd
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 5th
The Golden Knights may not be well-liked for how ruthless they are with making the best team possible that fits under the salary cap, but it’s the reason why they can keep bringing in players every year like Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, Robin Lehner, Alex Pietrangelo, and Jack Eichel. Of course, that comes at a price, as we’ve seen with Vegas losing Marc-Andre Fleury, Evgenii Dadonov, and Pacioretty for nothing, a sign that this is eventually going to crack, but they seem dead set on flying close to sun until their wings melt off.
That cold, calculated approach does pay off, though, as they end up in the top 10 in good contract percentage, dead cap space, quality of core, and cap space to skill differential. Their good contract percentage would probably be even better if not for the fact that Jack Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo’s deals come out looking bad in my system, the former’s because of his injuries dropping his play to first-line caliber rather than elite, and Pietrangelo’s being due to his defense falling off as he’s gotten older. However, that’s made up for with some sneaky good signings in Nicolas Roy and Zach Whitecloud, both considered to be good players signed for $3 million or less. Even Eichel and Pietrangelo’s “bad” deals don’t drastically affect Vegas’ second-ranked core quality, and overall, this is still a good team, so they’re worthy of being capped out.
Their biggest concern from going all in on loading up with all-stars is that the Golden Knights have basically killed their draft and prospect capital, especially considering that this is still a young franchise that didn’t have a ton to begin with. It means that their depth is thin, as we saw last season when injuries caused the team to miss the playoffs, and will probably do the same to the team this season with Lehner and Nolan Patrick already out for the year. The Golden Knights may have exceeded expectations as an expansion franchise for the first several years, but they may be due for that inevitable rebuild, especially considering that the only player on the roster that they drafted is Nicolas Hague.
5. Florida Panthers
Good Contract Percentage: 2nd
Quality Cheap Deals: 3rd
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 6th
Dead Cap Space: 30th
Quality of Core: 3rd
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 17th
Fresh off their first playoff series win in 25 years, the Panthers made a bold move bringing in Tkachuk for a significant amount of pieces and are looking to make sure that they don’t wait another 25 years for their next win. That deal leaves them with a weak blueline that doesn’t exactly have strong goaltending behind it, but there’s still a lot more good than bad with this team.
While the Panthers did lose a lot to get Tkachuk, it should be noted that the deal they got him signed to is an amazing one, and it’s highly unlikely that we see it look bad over the course of the eight years. In fact, the Panthers have managed to dodge bad contracts for the most part, as they’re tied for first with the fewest at three. The problem is that two of those deals are expensive, with Sergei Bobrovsky’s albatross at $10.5 million, and the other pricey one being Sam Bennett’s, mostly due to his success in Florida being outweighed by how bad he was in Calgary. The fact that his big reason for success in Huberdeau is gone is a cause for concern, which is why the system – and quite honestly, myself – are not sold on his current deal.
Besides those two bad deals, and a lot of dead cap space thanks to the buyouts of Scott Darling and Keith Yandle, there’s a lot to be happy about with the Panthers’ cap situation. Tkachuk and Aleksander Barkov manage to make their core look great in spite of Bobrovsky, they to avoid giving players no-trade/no-move clauses, and they’ve done a great job developing players to the point where they have a plethora of cheap quality depth (although that is probably about to run dry with all the draft picks and prospects they’ve dealt in the past year in the Ben Chiarot and Claude Giroux trades). How they perform with a new head coach and a depleted blueline will be interesting to see, but they’ve done a good job cap-wise in setting this team up for long term success – once they get rid of Bobrovsky’s contract.
4. Washington Capitals
Good Contract Percentage: 4th
Quality Cheap Deals: 1st
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 22nd
Dead Cap Space: 2nd
Quality of Core: 3rd
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 26th
The Capitals have been one of the more consistent NHL teams in the salary cap era, and while they haven’t been able to make any noise in the playoffs since their Stanley Cup win in 2018, they’ve done a great job of keeping the team competitive enough to make the playoffs, which should certainly help Alexander Ovechkin toward that coveted all-time goals record.
If there was any indication that the wheels might be falling off soon for the Caps, it’s their good contract percentage. That might be weird to say considering they have the fourth best ranking in the league and only have six bad contracts on the team, but it’s whom those bad deals belong to that may be the problem in the future. Ovechkin, Nicklas Backstrom, Evgeny Kuznetsov, T.J. Oshie, Tom Wilson, and Marcus Johansson make up that group, with the first five arguably being their five best forwards. It’s due to a combination of that group getting older, struggling with the defensive side of their game, and seeing their even strength scoring totals decrease. Those deals also come with term and no-move/no-trade clauses, which drag down that category for them and also play a role in this team being the most over the cap when accounting for long-term injured reserve.
But there is still a lot more good than bad with this situation. That good contract percentage is as high as it is because they have 13 good deals in the system, tied for the second most in the league. They also have the most quality cheap deals in the league by three, helped by the fact that 39 of their 49 standard player contracts are to players with NHL experience and only six of them are replacement level. The addition of Darcy Kuemper to a core of Ovechkin and John Carlson makes it hard for that category to look bad, and not having any dead cap space at the moment is huge when navigating the cap crunch the team is facing. The fact that their worst contracts belong to their best forwards is a sign that this good looking cap situation has an expiration date, but until then, the Caps seem hell-bent on getting every last bit of success out of this core until it’s done.
3. Minnesota Wild
Good Contract Percentage: 3rd
Quality Cheap Deals: 6th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 14th
Dead Cap Space: 32nd
Quality of Core: 1st
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 1st
The fact that the Minnesota Wild have the most dead cap space by almost twice the amount of the next worst team and still find themselves third in these rankings is a testament to how well they’ve managed the salary cap. The dead cap space is the unfortunate price of the buyouts of Zach Parise and Suter, but that’s on previous management for signing those staggering deals right before they became illegal.
Wild general manager Bill Guerin knew how much it would cost to get rid of those contracts, and while it gave them the cap space they needed in 2021-22 to go all in, it means that they’ll have between $12 and $15 million in dead cap space for the next three seasons, a tough hole to work around. But for this season, they managed to do just that by finishing in the top half in every other category, including the fact that they’re the only team to rank first in two categories. The quality of their core is first by a decent amount thanks to the fact they boast three elite players in Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, and Jared Spurgeon, as well as a top pair defender in Jonas Brodin, according to my system.
What might be more impressive is that they rank first in cap space to skill differential, as the fact that they can still ice a really good team and have more than $5 million in cap space in spite of the almost $13 million they have in dead cap space makes it hard to believe that they could pull it off. It helps that they rank sixth in quality cheap depth, something much needed with so little cap space to work with, and then when they do have to give out money to their players, it’s usually at good bang for their buck. They have just four bad contracts on the books in Mats Zuccarello, Matt Dumba, Jacob Middleton, and Marc-Andre Fleury, with only Middleton’s going beyond the next two seasons as well, something all important as that dead cap space will increase even more in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
2. New Jersey Devils
Good Contract Percentage: 5th
Quality Cheap Deals: 15th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 3rd
Dead Cap Space: 23rd
Quality of Core: 9th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 1st
The Devils have been a team that’s seemed poised to finally take the next step, especially after several straight offseasons of savvy decision-making that have only been deterred by bad luck and bad goaltending, but those smart moves are at least made more apparent by the Devils finding themselves in second on our ranking. The system really likes the team they’ve iced this year, which makes this positioning a big gamble, but I think there’s plenty to be excited about if you’re a Devils fan.
The fact that the system does like their team puts them in a favorable spot for cap space to skill differential, especially when they’ll have even more space if they go over the cap with Jonathan Bernier on LTIR. The additions of Dougie Hamilton and Tomas Tatar last season, and Ondrej Palat and John Marino this season, make the team look really good, and the fact that they’re all on good deals really helps their good contract percentage. They still have some bad ones, the most notable being Nico Hischier, who hasn’t exactly established himself as dominant top six center either offensively or defensively at this point in his career yet comes in at a $7.25 million cap hit that requires him to do so. However, he still grades out as a second liner, so the combination of him, Palat, Hamilton, Marino, Jack Hughes, and Jonas Siegenthaler make for a good core to have locked up.
Their biggest weakness is their dead cap space, although a majority of that is a byproduct of the mistakes made by a general manager who appeared in the bottom eight of these rankings with his new team, and that’s Lou Lamoriello. The Devils are on the hook for $2 million for the next two seasons still because of the buyout of Cory Schneider’s expensive deal signed by Lamoriello, as well as another $250,000 because of the recapture penalty from Ilya Kovalchuk’s contract and the shenanigans surrounding both the signing and his departure. It’s at least a good sign that current Devils general manager Tom Fitzgerald knows what he’s doing considering the team’s biggest mistakes aren’t his, but the team still has a lot to do on the ice before anyone can really praise this organization for its work.
1. Colorado Avalanche
Good Contract Percentage: 10th
Quality Cheap Deals: 21st
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 9th
Dead Cap Space: 2nd
Quality of Core: 7th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 3rd
There’s a reason that the Avalanche have been one of the best teams for the past several seasons, leading to their Stanley Cup win in 2022, and that’s because they are the model franchise at navigating the salary cap. The fact that they rank first after their Cup win (which is usually when teams start locking up older or bad players who they viewed as important to their run to terrible deals) says a lot about their decision-making.
However, many of their moves this offseason are the reason they don’t rank even higher in some categories. Quite a few of the team’s seven bad contracts came this offseason, including the depth re-signings of Darren Helm and Andrew Cogliano, the long-term deal to Josh Manson, and the big gamble on Alexandar Georgiev in net. Despite that, they also made some good moves in the offseason, including the return of Valeri Nichushkin and Artturi Lehkonen, and it’s also really hard to screw up a Nathan MacKinnon contract. They don’t have a ton of quality cheap deals to work around it like they used to, but they’ve always made the right additions in the offseason and at the deadline to add any talent they still think might be missing for a playoff run.
What’s also impressive is that they don’t need to throw around no-trade/no-move clauses to make that happen and have also been able to ride out any of their contracts instead of buying them out, particularly the $6 million deal to Erik Johnson that’s finally on its last year. They also have a strong core that would be better if not for Manson, but regardless, this is a good team that should be right up against the cap like they are. It’s fitting that after finishing a list of 32 teams and going over how important it is to be smart with the salary cap, the best team in the league showcases just that by also topping off this list.
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