Tacitly threatened with an opening-night forfeit, the Devils face a situation of gravity. Veterans who go down probably won’t come back up.
Enforcement isn’t exactly spelled out in the new collective bargaining agreement, but a high NHL official has told The Post that “the Devils couldn’t take the ice with a payroll in excess of the cap opening night (Oct. 5),” and that the league would “compel” the Devils to cut salary to comply.
That’s why Lou Lamoriello is believed to be working feverishly to trade some veterans for draft picks. Failing that, it would appear that waiving – and probably waving goodbye to – several players is his most likely solution. Players in the minors don’t count toward the cap, even if on one-way contracts.
Unless Lamoriello delivers a miracle, he will have to cut his payroll some $1.77 million by Oct. 1 to come under the NHL’s $39 million salary cap. He has promised to comply.
Trading partners may be few, facing their own cap constraints while hoping to grab down-going players for the minimal waiver price instead of yielding draft picks.
Should the Devils later recall any vets who went unclaimed at full salary on the way down to Albany, other teams could claim them on their way up and only have to pay half their remaining salary, with the Devils paying the other half. And – get this – the Devils’ half of the claimed recall’s salary would count against New Jersey’s cap, this for a player they no longer own.
Should a recall go unclaimed by others, the Devils, of course, would then have to pay all the remaining salary, which would all count toward the cap.
With their cap situation, it isn’t likely they’d bring anyone back until late in the season. The Devils currently have a $44.5 million payroll, some $5.5 million over the salary cap they must meet by Oct. 1. Working backwards, they already have been temporarily pardoned $4.18 million of that excess because of Patrik Elias’ hepatitis, but counting the minimum $450,000 salary that replaces him on the 23-man roster, they still must cut $1.77 million by Oct. 1, and then another $3.73 million before Elias can play, probably in November.
To cut that immediate $1.77 million, they must rid themselves of at least a $2.22 million contract, since they’ll have to replace it with a league-minimum $450,000 player, or shed two players combining for $2.67 million in deals, to be replaced with two minimum salaries. That’s why Jeff Friesen, with his $2.28 million deal seems such a target. Or Viktor Kozlov at $1.75 million, Sergei Brylin at $1.52 million, or Jamie Langenbrunner at $1.66 million.
With the Devils, such a scenario would mean paying millions to players in the minors. Only Paul Martin, on the regular roster, has a two-way contract that pays him a small minor league salary, probably $75,000, and he’s not the one going down.
There likely will be at least one Devil heading to Albany soon, and there could be a few more when Elias is ready to play. Lamoriello might not like paying NHL salaries to players in the AHL, but he has little choice if he can’t make deals.