Cap Nerd powers….. ACTIVATE.

Even I need help understanding this plate of legal spaghetti called the Collective Bargaining Agreement.  And when I do, I turn to HFBoards.com, where the “Business of Hockey” forum is moderated by the guy who created and maintains nhlscap.com.  There’s no better NHL salary cap resource out there.

So the thread is here, and answers all my remaining questions about McLaren, and corrects a few misunderstandings that grier had in the previous post.  Let’s get down to brass tacks- if the Sharks did not assign McLaren to the AHL, he would still count against the 23-man Active Roster, and thus count against the cap.  Waiving him was just the first part of a two-step process to clear the cap room.  Also, the Sharks cannot tear up the contract and let McLaren sign with someone else, because the CBA specifically prohibits renegotiation.

There was never a great alternative in this situation, unless the Sharks chose not to sign Blake (which isn’t a great alternative).  If they bought McLaren out when Goc filed for arbitration, $625K would count against the cap this year, which means the Sharks would still be over the cap right now.  It’s just a crappy situation all around.

But all that crap will magically melt away tonight when the season opens.