We\u2019ve reached the start of September, which means NHL training camps are just around the corner. With transactions being few and far between, teams have most of their rosters locked down and more or less know what their salary cap situations look like for the upcoming season.<\/p>\n
That means it\u2019s time to officially kick off this season\u2019s salary cap rankings at Daily Faceoff, in which we take a look at all the different aspects of managing and excelling in the salary cap era and rank teams based on how well they do. That\u2019s all done through a somewhat complex process and system, which I have outlined\u00a0in\u00a0a summary of its own for your convenience<\/a>.<\/p>\n This is the part of the list where salary cap situations start to look a lot better. While no team\u2019s situation in this portion run an air-tight ship with their cheque books, there is still a lot more to be happy about than to be worried about, which is especially great for the teams either in playoff contention every season or on the cusp of being there.<\/p>\n The only notable change to the previous lists for this week is that the Utah Mammoth have jumped from 20th to 12th, which means they are now on this list. As a result, the Buffalo Sabres<\/a>, who were originally 16th, slid down a spot, and you can now find their blurb in last week\u2019s edition<\/a>. Also, after the Toronto Maple Leafs<\/a> and Columbus Blue Jackets<\/a> swapped places last week, they\u2019ve swapped again this week and are back in their original spots.<\/p>\n Contract Rating:\u00a016th 16th is exactly where the Kraken deserve to be. Through four seasons as a franchise, they\u2019ve established themselves as an extremely mediocre team. They\u2019re too good to get good draft picks, and they\u2019re too bad to make the playoffs.<\/p>\n While Seattle doesn\u2019t have a lot of dead cap space on their books, and their roster is paid about what it should be, its core is on the weaker side. They also have a ton of players with clauses, likely a product of playing in a no-tax state and ensuring players that sign to cheaper deals that they won\u2019t be moved to a place where they will be taxed more.<\/p>\n However, Seattle doesn\u2019t flex that \u201cno-tax state\u201d muscle as well as some other teams with that luxury. While they have some great value out of Jared McCann, Jordan Eberle, Tye Kartye, Jamie Oleksiak and Joey Daccord, they\u2019ve also handed out some doozies. Chandler Stephenson\u2019s contract already looks bad after one season, with six more to go, and the new contracts to Ryan Lindgren and Adam Larsson are questionable at best. Then there\u2019s the Philipp Grubauer contract, which somehow hasn\u2019t been bought out yet.<\/p>\n While some of the Kraken\u2019s core looks good with Daccord, Matty Beniers, and even Brandon Montour (who\u2019s worth the cap hit for the time being), it\u2019s spoiled by the aforementioned deals to Stephenson, Lindgren and Larsson.<\/p>\n Contract Rating:\u00a021st The Ducks are clearly sick of losing. Now seven seasons into their rebuild, last season saw them get as close as they\u2019ve ever been, but not close enough. So they\u2019ve gone all in with this group and bolstered their lineup with a veteran core, and yet it\u2019s those veterans that hamper their salary cap situation, even though it is improving from previous years.<\/p>\n Perhaps grabbing the castoffs from the paper tiger of Cup contenders that was the New York Rangers<\/a> wasn\u2019t the best idea, because Chris Kreider and Jacob Trouba are two of those bad contracts in the Ducks\u2019 system, along with the egregious cap hit handed out to Mikael Granlund this summer. The cap hits for Frank Vatrano, Petr Mrazek, and Ville Husso aren\u2019t helping their situation, as well as the $2.5 million in retained salary from Cam Fowler\u2019s contract.<\/p>\n But beyond that, things are much better for Anaheim, especially pertaining to their young core. It\u2019s the likes of Cutter Gauthier, Leo Carlsson, Jackson Lacombe, Olen Zellweger and Pavel Mintyukov that make up the Ducks\u2019 good contracts, and with most of those players still on their entry-level contracts, they aren\u2019t tied down by any clauses and give the Ducks the most cap space in the league.<\/p>\n It also helps the Ducks\u2019 case that none of those bad contracts are signed long-term, with their core made up of just Troy Terry and Lukas Dostal, barring a long-term extension to Mason McTavish.<\/p>\n Contract Rating:\u00a012th The Oilers have traditionally never done well in these rankings, having spent the first two seasons in the bottom two spots before finally moving up to 18th last season. They move up a few more spots again this year, and it\u2019s a sign of both the team\u2019s improvement in the wake of back-to-back Cup Final appearances, as well as what happens when Ken Holland isn\u2019t your general manager (just look at what he\u2019s already done to the Los Angeles Kings<\/a>).<\/p>\n That starts with a strong core quality, which is the best in the league. It may be a bit surprising considering that Darnell Nurse and Trent Frederic qualify for that core, but while their contracts aren\u2019t the best, they are still good players. And then of course Leon Draisaitl, Evan Bouchard, and Ryan Nugent-Hopkins put it over the top, even without the help of Connor McDavid.<\/p>\n That also gives the Oilers a strong contract rating, because aside from the aforementioned Nurse and Adam Henrique, most of the worst cap hits are actually just really bad players on cheap deals like Josh Brown and Max Jones. Otherwise, Edmonton has a lot of great value, which includes most of their defense (again, excluding Nurse), Andrew Mangiapane, Zach Hyman, Vasily Podkolzin, Nugent-Hopkins, and yes, both of their goalies.<\/p>\n Really, where Edmonton struggles is with their dead cap space from Jack Campbell\u2019s buyout, and the fact that this roster isn\u2019t quite at the caliber of a Cup contender considering the fact that they\u2019re capped out. Otherwise, they seem set up for success for the future, regardless of what cap hit McDavid comes in at next season.<\/p>\n Contract Rating:\u00a08th Seeing the Penguins this high may surprise some people. After all, they\u2019re set to be a horrible team this season, and contracts like Ryan Graves and Tristan Jarry are some of the worst in the league. But don\u2019t mistaken a bad team for a bad cap situation. Pittsburgh\u2019s is significantly improved from last season, and outside of those two albatross deals, any deal of concern is set to expire within the next couple years.<\/p>\n It should make sense that the Penguins have a league-worst quality of core because they don\u2019t even have a core to begin with. Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin, Kris Letang and Erik Karlsson could all be gone within the next few years as they undergo a rebuild and establish a new core, which leaves their only long-term contract being the aforementioned Graves.<\/p>\n
Contracts with No-Trade\/No-Move Clauses:\u00a0t-28th
Dead Cap Space:\u00a08th
Quality of Core:\u00a022nd
Cap Space to Skill Differential:\u00a04th<\/p>\n
Contracts with No-Trade\/No-Move Clauses:\u00a0t-5th
Dead Cap Space:\u00a024th
Quality of Core:\u00a010th
Cap Space to Skill Differential:\u00a0t-16th<\/p>\n
Contracts with No-Trade\/No-Move Clauses:\u00a0t-16th
Dead Cap Space:\u00a025th
Quality of Core:\u00a01st
Cap Space to Skill Differential:\u00a021st<\/p>\n
Contracts with No-Trade\/No-Move Clauses:\u00a0t-18th
Dead Cap Space:\u00a014th
Quality of Core:\u00a032nd
Cap Space to Skill Differential:\u00a02nd<\/p>\n