DNHL Salaries vs Actual NHL Cap

[GypsieDeathBringer]

Hurricanes:       80.8m DNHL Salary vs  108.2m in NHL Salary

C Anze Kopitar, $8.3m (2020-2021)      10M (2023-24)
C John Tavares, $8.3m (2021-2022)   5.5m (2017-18)
C Atrem Anisimov, $3.5m (2018-2019)    4.6m (2020-21)
C Colton Sissons, $0.9m (2018-2019)      .6m (2018-19)
C Elias Lindholm, $2.3m (2020-2021)      2.7m (2017-18)
C Derek Ryan, $0.9m (2018-2019)      1.4m (2017-18)
D Jeff Petry, $1.3m (2017-2018)       5.5m (2020-21)
D Justin Faulk, $2m (2018-2019)        4.8m (2019-20)
D Ryan Murphy, $0.5m (2018-2019)     .7m (2017-18)
D Dougie Hamilton, $2.5m (2019-2020)        5.8m (2020-21)
D Jared Spurgeon, $3.8m (2020-2021)        5.2m (2019-20)
D John Klingberg, $6m (2018-2019)            4.3m (2021-22)
D Seth Jones, $2m (2020-2021)               5.4m (2021-22)
D Ryan Pulock, $0.5m (P-n/a)              .9m (2017-18)
D Victor Mete, $0.9m (2018-2019)         .7m (2019-20)
G Marc-Andre Fleury, $6.3m (2019-2020)     5.8m (2018-19)
G John Gibson, $0.2m (P-17/18)            2.3m (2018-19)
G Scott Wedgewood, $0.5m (P-n/a)         .7m (2017-18)
G Andrew Hammond, $0.2m (P-17/18)       1.4m (2017-18)
LW James Neal, $6.8m (2021-2022)          5m (2017-18)
LW Brendan Perlini, $2.7m (2018-2019)     .9m (2018-19)
LW Johnny Gaudreau, $4.8m (2021-2022)    6.8m (2021-22)
LW Pat Maroon, $2m (2020-2021)       2m (2017-18)
RW Marian Gaborik, $0.5m (2018-2019)          4.9m (2020-21)
RW Phil Kessel, $5.6m (2019-2020)           8m (2021-22)
RW Brett Ritchie, $0.2m (P-18/19)         1.8m (2018-19)
RW Cam Atkinson, $2m (2019-2020)         5.9m (2022-23)
RW Brent Burns, $5.9m (2020-2021)          8m (2022-23)
RW Bryan Rust, $0.9m (2018-2019)         .6m (2017-18)

Broad stroke differences between us and the NHL is that our d-man contracts were purposefully handcuffed like 30% maybe 40% since we don't pay for defense.  Our prospect contracts really exacerbate that difference to NHL salaries.   We also don't have 10 year contracts that end up haunting teams, so a guy like Gaborik is almost never going to make 4.9m into his late 30s.  Also, our contracts are based on production.  There can be only (1) #1 center in our league per year, so a guy like Kopitar is the NHL King's #1 center so he gets 10m a year, but he would have to be the entire DNHL's #1 center to get that kind of contract.

If you adjust for our reduced dman contracts my team looks like   DNHL Salary of 80.8m vs NHL Salary of 95.81
Then my team is loaded with prospect dman contracts so that is another 30% off some       DNHL Salary of 80.8m vs NHL Salary of 85.8m (6% difference)

Overall I would say that the NHL has changed since we instituted the 5 year prospect contract in that they are giving out more money to younger players.  Since our prospect contracts act like a current NHL "bridge deal" we might want to knock a couple years off that 5 if we are trying to keep right on with the big league. 

[WestCoastExpress]

Overall I would say that the NHL has changed since we instituted the 5 year prospect contract in that they are giving out more money to younger players.  Since our prospect contracts act like a current NHL "bridge deal" we might want to knock a couple years off that 5 if we are trying to keep right on with the big league. 

I would tend to agree with maybe making the prospect extension discount exactly like a bridge deal, maybe over 3 years instead of 5.

While I'm certainly not complaining that my own roster has guys like Scheifele under $5m, and Kucherov at $4m on long-term deals, I think having to re-sign those guys now would make the rest of my team watered down a bit.
I'm pretty sure that would go for everyone.

Maybe some bigger fish FA's hit the open market, especially Centers given their higher extension values.
Which...I think would be good for the league. Yes it sucks losing great players to FA because you can't/don't want to re-sign them to $7m/year deals, but the more of those guys there are in FA, maybe the crazy contracts won't be handed out that can cripple a team
ie. Jake Guentzel for over $10m per year for 5 years...yikes. Or (sorry Rob) Anders Nilsson at $5m or Colton Paryako at/close the #1 D-man extension value at $5m.
Now I know Paryako was a mid-season FA bidding war, but still.

However, maybe what happens is a Scheifele in FA gets $13m a year if Guentzel is getting $10m. So that suggestion might be a moot point for a team (like Slack this year, PIT last year) who has a bank vault worth of cap space.

[SlackJack]

So that suggestion might be a moot point for a team (like Slack this year, PIT last year) who has a bank vault worth of cap space.

I'm saving that cap space for my own extensions to be honest. Admittedly that kicking the bankroll a ways down the road, but my approach is to generally avoid Free Agency. Every once in a while you can snag an under-appreciated player but more often than not it's just sheer madness!