Counting the Beans (Post Maroon)

[Capfriendly](https://www.capfriendly.com/teams/wild) is a great resource that I’m sure most of you know about. Normally, you can just glance at it and get a good idea of how the salary cap stacks up. This summer, though, the Wild are about as tight against the cap as a team can be and every dollar counts, so it’s worth looking at *exactly* how CapFriendly calculated our reported **$7,493,912**.

The NHL Salary Cap for the 2023-24 season is **$83.5MM.** The buyout brothers cost **$14.743588MM** in dead cap. The site then lists our Forward liabilities at **$37.75MM** for 10 players, Defense at **$19.225MM** for 5 players, and Goalies at **$4.2875MM** for 2 players. Naturally, none of the RFA’s are included in the calculations yet. Additionally, Rossi (+$863.333k) and Faber (+$925k) are not included in the calculations for Forwards and Defense, but Hunter Jones (-$787.5k) is included for Goalies. This puts our adjusted figure at **$6,493,079** in cap space, with a spot for a goalie, a third pair right shot defender (preferably with powerplay capability), a bottom 6 wing, and a press box forward.

The Wild have an RFA at each position. Based on Russo’s most recent [article](https://theathletic.com/4659048/2023/07/01/wild-free-agency-filip-gustavsson/), it seems that the Wild still plan to sign all 3. Gustavsson is expected to get a 1 year deal at $3.2MM or a 3 year deal at $3.4MM, Duhaime “not much more than $1.1MM or $1.2MM”, and Addison “probably less than $1MM”. Just to be conservative, let’s say the 2023-24 cap hits are $3.4MM for Gus, $1.2MM for Dewy1, and $1MM for Addy. This would leave **$893,079** in cap space, which is barely enough to put Walker ($855k) in the press box, and literally $1088 too little to do the same with Beckman. Really, we are looking at our 13th forward being a league minimum/black ace type of guy with pretty much no margin for short term injuries.

So, this means that we probably have to either 1) sign our guys (or other suitable substitutes) for under the predicted values, 2) clear out additional cap either at the start of the year or by the trade deadline, or 3) a combination of the two. There are certainly options to clear space with vets in the final year of their deal including: Zuccarello ($6MM, 10NMC), Fleury ($3.5MM, NMC), Foligno ($3.1MM), Goligoski ($2MM, NMC), Hartman ($1.7MM). Those guys seem more like deadline trade candidates (if at all). The one move that I think will still happen is Johnny Merrill (-$1.2MM) being traded for future considerations just before camp (ala Kulikov), with Daemon Hunt (+$828,333) coming up to platoon the 3LD with Goligoski. This saves **$371,667**, giving us some breathing room to call up some players in the event of injury, and, perhaps just as importantly, gives a prospect a spot currently filled by a mediocre veteran.

by TheTree-43