Jarome Iginla owes Joe Sakic one expensive bottle of wine.
When you break down the math, the Colorado Avalanche did Iginla a huge solid Wednesday. Sakic shipped the veteran to Los Angeles ahead of the NHL trade deadline, as Iginla chases his elusive Stanley Cup, while agreeing to pay 50 percent of Iginla's remaining salary. And it's possible that when the dust settles, the Avs will receive nothing in return for Iginla, and will have simply cut a cheque for him to chase his Cup dream.
We'll explain, below, as we break down some of the more interesting money movement that took place ahead of the March 1 deadline.
Iginla gets his wish
The Avs got a conditional fourth-round pick from the Kings for Iginla. Thing is, there are reportedly multiple conditions on the pick:
Condition on 4th round pick for Iginla is playoff related and potential Iggy resigns in LA.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) March 1, 2017
Yes, that means the Kings must make the playoffs, and that's no guarantee. That's big.
Iginla's in the final season of his expiring contract, which pays him $5 million in salary and carries a cap hit of $5,333,333. He's owed $1,118,500 the rest of the way against the cap, according to NHL Numbers, which means L.A. will pay Iginla only $592,500 down the stretch, with Colorado picking up the other half.
And if the Kings miss the playoffs, L.A. and Colorado will have paid the same amount of money for Iginla to finish the season in Hollywood, and Colorado will receive nothing in return.
Sakic won two Cups. He knows what that life is about. But that doesn't mean trading Iginla while agreeing to pick up half his remaining salary - the Kings, like every other team, are tight up against the cap - wasn't a very generous gesture by Sakic and the rest of his front-office crew in Denver.
Help me help you
Salary retention is the name of the game these days, in a flat-capped NHL. The cap ceiling is $73 million this season, and it's expected that won't change heading into 2017-18 - meaning no relief for teams that are up against it.
Beginning with the Johnny Oduya trade on Feb. 28, the defender headed back to the Blackhawks from the Stars, salary was retained in the following transactions up until the deadline
| Deal | Salary retained |
|---|---|
| Stars trade Oduya | 50% |
| Canadiens trade Desharnais | 20% |
| Canucks trade Hansen | 20% |
| Red Wings trade Vanek | 50% |
| Avs trade Iginla | 50% |
| Flyers trade Streit | 4.7% |
| Lightning trade Streit | 50% |
About the Flyers and Mark Streit: that's not a typo. The Flyers picked up 4.7 percent of the defender's remaining salary, because that's how creative teams are getting in dealing with the cap.
There's more, going back a few days. The Hurricanes retained 50 percent of Ron Hainsey's salary as part of his trade to Pittsburgh, Tampa Bay retained 20 percent of Ben Bishop's salary in dealing him to L.A., Arizona retained 50 percent of Martin Hanzal's salary as part of his deal to Minnesota, and the Blues retained 39 percent of Kevin Shattenkirk's salary - and he was the top rental player available on the market.
So much of the deadline was about teams picking up costs in order to get back assets they coveted, and teams picking up costs to ensure they wouldn't lose assets for nothing.
The Thomas Vanek deal is another good example: The Red Wings were in sell-mode, everyone knew it, and in order for general manager Ken Holland to collect a third-round pick hours before the deadline for arguably the top offensive player left on the market, he had to agree to pay 50 percent of Vanek's remaining salary.
Vanek, playing out a one-year, $2.60-million deal, will cost the Panthers only $289,000 against the cap for the rest of the season, according to NHL Numbers. That's nothing.
Money leaving Tampa
A lot of money flowed out of Tampa Bay over the past few days.
The Lightning are in it deep, coming off two late-round Stanley Cup runs, but they weren't able to bring it home. But now things must change, and they have, because Jonathan Drouin, Tyler Johnson, and Ondrej Palat are set for restricted free agency and need new contracts.
General manager Steve Yzerman traded Bishop's expiring contract, picking up almost $285,000 of what's left of it. He got out from the $5 million owed to Valtteri Filppula next season (and his no-movement clause, which means Tampa won't have to protect him in the expansion draft, opening up a spot to protect another forward). Yzerman traded Brian Boyle's expiring deal, and flipped Streit after trading for him in the Filppula transaction.
The Lightning now have around $18 million in cap space heading into next season, according to Cap Friendly, with means they'll be able to get Drouin, Johnson, and Palat signed.
Getting out from Filppula's contract was a major win for Yzerman, and, in the end, all it cost him was a conditional seventh-round pick, after he got back a fourth after flipping Streit. That's impressive general managing.
Pain now, in dealing key veterans who played major roles in the playoffs over the past two years, but the future in Tampa Bay looks a whole lot brighter.
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