Martin St-Louis likes to talk about players’ ceilings when it comes to their potential. The New York Rangers play under the most aesthetic of ceilings at Madison Square Garden.
For its part, the Minnesota Wild is stuck with a different type of ceiling, and the consequences will be very real this Tuesday evening at the Bell Center, against the Canadian.
The Wild are in fact so close to the salary limit that they will have to deploy a roster with 17 skaters, rather than 18, to face the CH. Veteran defenseman Alex Goligoski was injured in practice Tuesday and the team does not have the salary cap space to recall him.
Minnesota will therefore play the match with a squad of 11 attackers and 6 defenders.
“You have to juggle a little, your communication has to be on point on the bench, because some guys are going to do double shifts,” explained Wild head coach Dean Evason. Would we like to give Kirill Kaprizov double attendances every time? Of course. But you have to be careful not to burn it early in the match.
“The idea is to send the right players in the right situations, so a defensive player if it’s a faceoff in our territory, and an offensive player if it’s one in the opponent’s zone. We have a plan, but it changes during the match. »
However, Evason himself recalled: “We are not the only team in this situation. »
The situation was highlighted in broad terms for influential players’ agent Allan Walsh on X on Monday. “Almost half the league cannot do a recall right now,” he lamented, criticizing in passing the salary cap established under Gary Bettman.
The bottom line is that teams must be on track to finish the season under the salary cap at all times. In other words, they cannot start the season with a surplus cap and plan to save money later. Only the opposite is allowed: start under the cap, accumulate room for maneuver and spend more by making acquisitions at the end of the season.
Knowing this, a team wishing to make a recall must therefore have the equivalent of the minimum salary – $750,000 – in space allocated. However, according to the reference site Puckpedia, the Wild are on track to conclude the season with some $51,000 under the cap. Eleven other teams find themselves in this same situation, including the Senators ($62,000), which explains why they are unable to offer a contract to restricted free agent Shane Pinto.
Dean Evason’s headaches, however, will only last for one match. By playing with 19 players on Tuesday, the Wild will indeed gain the right to carry out a so-called emergency recall. The recalled player will therefore not count under the cap. However, he must have an annual salary of $850,000 or less.
“It’s our situation, but we’re not the only ones. Cap management is not the coaches’ responsibility, so I’m going to run the team I have on hand,” Evason said simply.
Obviously, players will have to pay attention to the bench, because the composition of the lines will constantly change. However, it is nothing different than when a player is injured during a match, which CH experienced on Saturday when Kirby Dach withdrew in the first period.
Wild forward Frédérick Gaudreau, however, reduced the problem of bench management to its simplest expression. “The coach calls the names. When you hear your name, you go! »
This makes sense.
