We are now past the halfway mark of the salary cap rankings, and while so far we’ve seen a collection of teams in cap hell, teams recovering from cap hell, and teams on their way to cap hell, we still haven’t seen signs of really strong cap management. We start to take a look at those teams this week, and although the teams in this group still have their own flaws, those deficiencies are much less egregious than those of the teams we’ve already covered.

If you want to catch up on the rankings so far, we’ve covered teams 32-25 and teams 24-17 in the past two weeks, and if you need a refresher on how the system used to create this ranking works, check out the guide to it here.

16. Vancouver Canucks

Good Contract Percentage: 14th
Quality Cheap Deals: 8th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 6th
Dead Cap Space: 22nd
Quality of Core: 9th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 29th

It’s amazing how much an organizational makeover can help a team. It hasn’t even been a year since the Vancouver Canucks got rid of general manager Jim Benning, and already the team is starting to look better in the salary cap department, something it rarely did in the Benning era. There’s still a fair amount of work to do, but it’s much better than it used to be.

The biggest issue with the Canucks is that they don’t nearly have a good enough roster to justify being barely under the salary cap (once you put Micheal Ferland’s contract on long-term injured reserve), especially on defense, which was tied for second worst rated in the league, and the only thing keeping it from being the worst is Quinn Hughes. They also have $2.4 million in dead cap space because of the buyout penalties for Braden Holtby and Jake Virtanen, although the latter wasn’t really their fault, and both penalties are done after this season.

They’ve done a surprisingly good job of not having too many no-trade/no-move clauses on the books considering most of their contracts were still signed in the Benning era, although three of the four that they do have belong to some of their worst contracts in Oliver Ekman-Larsson, Tyler Myers, and Tanner Pearson. They’ve also done a good job of locking up their best players, with the only ones secure long term that don’t qualify as first line or top pair players being Ekman-Larsson and the recent J.T. Miller extension (who comes out as a “second-liner” in my rating system because his defensive deficiencies drag down his overall score). There’s also Benning’s one talent of drafting well paying off, with the eighth most quality cheap deals. The Canucks still have some rough contracts to power through, but overall, the new management team seems to be making better decisions so far.

15. Seattle Kraken

Good Contract Percentage: 16th
Quality Cheap Deals: 15th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 32nd
Dead Cap Space: 2nd
Quality of Core: 7th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 16th

I feel like it’d be more surprising if a team as new as the Seattle Kraken were closer to the bottom than in the middle where they are now. With just one year under their belt as a franchise, it would have been impressive if they had managed to destroy their cap space in such a short span. Still, they’ve certainly added on their fair share of iffy deals, enough to make them mediocre overall.

The only glaring issue is that they already have the most no-trade/no-move clauses in the league on their team with 13, which is three more than the next worst team. That feels like an excessive amount for a new franchise, and unless they need it to convince players to join an expansion team, it’s hard to see why they’d need to hand out so many. On the flip side, they have no dead cap space, although that would also be hard to pull off in one year as a team, and with the exception of Philipp Grubauer, they’ve done a good job of identifying their best players to lock up long term.

What really establishes their middle-of-the-pack positioning is their hit or miss approach with contracts. They find themselves batting a tad under .500 with nine good deals and 10 bad ones. Up front they’ve done a good job with their contracts, especially the Jaden Schwartz and Andre Burakovsky deals in free agency, and pouncing on Oliver Bjorkstrand’s sweetheart deal in a trade. Where they’re in a bit more trouble is on the back end, as all three of their contracts that go beyond this season fall into the bad category; as well as the goaltending, as that Grubauer contract looks horrendous after one year, and the crease looks even worse with the team deciding to sign Martin Jones. It’s far from the worst-case scenario, especially with not a single contract over $6 million, but with a lot in the always risky $4-5 million range, it might cause some problems when the team starts to bring in high-end talent.

14. Nashville Predators

Good Contract Percentage: 20th
Quality Cheap Deals: 8th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 3rd
Dead Cap Space: 21st
Quality of Core: 16th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 20th

The Predators find themselves in a similar situation cap-wise as they do to the state of their team: good enough to be one of the better teams, but far from being elite in either category. The problem with both is that this is a relatively old group, so there’s a very strong chance that being middle of the pack is going to eventually teeter towards the bottom end of this list in cap hell. It’s a far cry from this team’s prime years in the mid-2010s when they were one of the best teams at managing the cap, and it’s a shame that we only got one deep playoff run with this group.

Their greatest strength is a lack of no-trade/no-move clauses, as they only have them on Roman Josi, Filip Forsberg’s new contract, and new addition Ryan McDonagh. What makes this even more impressive is that Nashville is one of the teams that resides in states with no income tax, so you’d expect that more players would not want to be traded from that sort of situation. They also have a decent group of cheap depth, highlighted by Philip Tomasino and Tanner Jeannot, although it’s not entirely a young group that they’re working with there either.

But they have their fair share of struggles as well. They rank 21st in dead cap space thanks to a $2 million buyout penalty to Kyle Turris that will last until 2028, which doesn’t help the fact that they’re a tad under .500 in bad contract percentage. They have some good deals in Josi, Nino Niederreiter, Mattias Ekholm, and Juuse Saros, with Matt Duchene also looking more favorable after a rebound season, but they have a few bad ones in that higher end group, including Ryan Johansen, McDonagh, and Forsberg, who’s deal looks bad because he makes elite money while his defense is poor enough to drag him down a tier. Adding Colton Sissons and Jeremy Lauzon to most of that group is also what makes their quality of core mediocre, making for a team that isn’t quite good enough to be this close to the cap. They’ll still be competitive for a few more seasons at least with this group, but they’ve struggled to do anything in the playoffs recently, and their better years look to be in the rearview mirror.

13. Philadelphia Flyers

Good Contract Percentage: 22nd
Quality Cheap Deals: 2nd
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 6th
Dead Cap Space: 1st
Quality of Core: 26th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 29th

The Flyers are a team that many were surprised to not see in the bottom half of these rankings. In their defense, the reasons why people would think that are the categories they rank the worst in, as this team is not good (and would look even worse if the Sean Couturier and Ryan Ellis injury news came out before the cut off date for this ranking) and is littered with bad contracts.

What serves as a big reason for the Flyers being this high up is because they rank first in dead cap space. You may have wondered why a bunch of teams that had no dead cap space all tied for second, and that’s because the Flyers are the only team whose “dead cap space” actually gave them more cap space, as their lone buyout penalty is a $333,333 cap credit for Oskar Lindblom. Combine that with the second most quality cheap deals thanks to giving a lot of their depth playing time last season, and only four no-trade/no-move clauses, and it really boosts their overall score.

However, it’s their other categories that should be a cause for concern. The team has some solid deals to build around, like the aforementioned Couturier and Ellis contracts (so long as injuries don’t hinder their play in the future), as well as Travis Konecny, Travis Sanheim, and even Tony DeAngelo’s deal looks good after a strong year in Carolina. But, they also have a lot of bad deals at the top end of their lineup, especially with term. James van Riemsdyk’s is up at the end of the year for them thankfully, but they still have to worry about Cam Atkinson, Kevin Hayes, Nic Deslauriers, and the recent extension to Rasmus Ristolainen. The contracts to Joel Farabee, Ivan Provorov, and Carter Hart also don’t look pretty at the moment, as they’ve struggled to be consistent in the past few seasons, dragging down their overall scores significantly. Having so many of those deals with term also drags down their quality of core, and the team as a whole just isn’t worth being over the salary cap. They may be looking to surprise this season, but the state of their contracts doesn’t bode well to an overall turnaround.

12. Tampa Bay Lightning

Good Contract Percentage: 6th
Quality Cheap Deals: 23rd
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 28th
Dead Cap Space: 2nd
Quality of Core: 12th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 12th

The Lightning have long been the benchmark for consistency in the NHL, even when it comes to managing the cap. Even though they usually find themselves close to the ceiling every year, they’ve always been great at wiggling around it to keep the pieces they value, even if those methods aren’t loved by other fanbases. However, this point in their dynasty is key in determining whether it continues, or if they come crashing down, all based on whether they pick the right pieces to invest in going forward.

The good news for the Bolts is that they still sit very well as far as good contract percentage goes, and quite a few of their bad contracts come because of the pickiness of the system. Brayden Point, Steven Stamkos, and Andrei Vasilevskiy all are considered “bad” deals, because they make elite money but fall just a tier below in terms of their play as graded by my system. This is especially the case with Vasilevskiy, who sits sixth when the elite category for goalie play only consists of five. They also have no dead cap space, with their only buyout on the books being Vincent Lecavalier’s compliance buyout.

They are starting to lag a bit more into the middle of the pack in other categories, though. They’ve always struggled with no-trade/no-move clauses, as it’s played a big part in getting all of their players on sweetheart deals, but it’s also proven to cause problems in the past when they needed to navigate the salary cap, particularly with Tyler Johnson. Point, Vasilevskiy, and Nikita Kucherov are obviously great pieces to have in their core, but it’s weighed down by the recent extensions to Nick Paul, Mikhail Sergachev, and Erik Cernak. They also have fewer cheap quality deals than they usually do, which tends to happen as you continue to develop talent and graduate that talent, but I’m sure they have players in the organization who haven’t played a game yet that will prove the system wrong there. It’s far from the end times for the Lightning, but the room for error is getting smaller and smaller if they want this dynasty to continue.

11. Toronto Maple Leafs

Good Contract Percentage: 10th
Quality Cheap Deals: 8th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 25th
Dead Cap Space: 2nd
Quality of Core: 19th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 9th

Much like their fellow blue and white Atlantic division rival before them, the Maple Leafs are another team that would normally be a lot higher than this. However, this isn’t because the team is taking a step back as a result of their success (they’d need to win a playoff round to qualify as successful), but more because of poor timing for their salary cap situation.

The biggest factor for dropping down a bit is that their core (must be signed for at least four more years to qualify) currently contains just two players in Morgan Rielly and Calle Jarnkrok, and this is where the poor timing comes to play. The usual suspects of their core that make the big money now just have two or three years left on their deals, mostly because the Leafs currently have their cap sheet structured to leave them with plenty of cap space when Auston Matthews’ contract expires in 2024 so that they can offer that man everything. They also struggle with their fair share of no-trade/no-move clauses, but that’s something they always do for some reason.

Otherwise, their cap situation is a lot better than what the fans and media will tell you. They have a few more bad contracts than they used to, particularly their new goaltending duo for the season, Rielly’s new extension (due to his consistently poor defensive ability), and John Tavares (mostly due to age and not being quite the play-driver he used to be), along with that new Jarnkrok contract. They have no dead cap space for the first time in who knows how long now that Phil Kessel’s $1.2 million retained salary is off the books, and like they have most seasons in the Dubas era, they do a great job of bringing in cheap depth, whether that’s finding random misfits to play alongside their stars like Michael Bunting, or convincing hometown veterans to play for cheap to win a Cup like Mark Giordano. All in all, it’s still a really good team, so the skill to cap differential doesn’t punish them for being over the cap, and they will continue to make some noise as long as that core group of high-end players sticks around, which is only for a couple more seasons at the moment.

10. Ottawa Senators

Good Contract Percentage: 15th
Quality Cheap Deals: 6th
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 3rd
Dead Cap Space: 28th
Quality of Core: 14th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 7th

Another team on the rise are the Senators, who after several years of bleak, horrendous hockey, made plenty of noise to attempt to put themselves in the playoff conversation and find themselves just outside the top half of these rankings as a result, with a bright future ahead. Anna and Olivia Melnyk seem to be committed to the team after their father Eugene’s passing (and they might be a bit less stingy with the cash as well), and general manager Pierre Dorion made some big moves, bringing in Alex DeBrincat and Claude Giroux to round out a solid young forward core. They aren’t out of the woods just yet, but they look a lot better than they did even last season.

Their biggest issue is that their blueline is still pretty weak and has a couple of really bad contracts in Nikita Zaitsev and Travis Hamonic. The system also doesn’t love Josh Norris and Drake Batherson’s deals, with both players struggling with the defensive side of the game and a lot of their offense coming more from the power play than even strength. They also find themselves with a lot of dead cap space, dealing with four different buyouts and just over $1.5 million on the books in retained salary from the Matt Murray trade, but that’s something that seemed to come from Eugene Melnyk wanting to kick the financial can down the road as much as he could.

But that’s where the struggles end for the Sens. They’ve done a good job of building around this new core with some solid depth pieces that have a future with the team, and they have just three players on no-move/no-trade clauses, which really boost them up these rankings. Their quality of core is dragged down because the system isn’t quite convinced that Tim Stutzle, Norris, and Batherson are top tier players yet, but it’s still much better to invest in youth than players in their 30s about to decline. The team doesn’t look great overall, but the fact that they still have more than $7 million in cap space helps their cap space to skill differential. Overall, it puts the team in the top 10 of our rankings, with the potential to get even better as the likes of Zaitsev and Hamonic leave the system.

9. Buffalo Sabres

Good Contract Percentage: 26th
Quality Cheap Deals: 3rd
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 1st
Dead Cap Space: 16th
Quality of Core: 9th
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 13th

The Sabres cap off a stretch of four Atlantic division teams in a row, but then again, this division is the best of the best for a reason. The Sabres probably aren’t used to being associated with the word “best,” but I’m sure they’ll take a high ranking on whatever list they can. They still have some horrendous deals in their system, but much like the vibes around the team this season on the ice, things are looking bright on their cap sheet as well.

Their lone blemish is probably the most important one, and that’s their good contract percentage. Jeff Skinner and Kyle Okposo are the obvious reasons for it, as both have been cap nightmares that plagued the team for years, although thankfully Okposo has just one year left. Their biggest problem is that they still have a lot of players considered fourth line/third pair or replacement level (although some of that is due to the extremely bad 2020-21 season dragging their numbers down), and those players are getting paid more their caliber. It mostly just affects their depth options like Henri Jokiharju, Zemgus Girgensons, and Anders Bjork but also extends to some of their younger players that are (hopefully) on the rise, like Victor Olofsson, Casey Mittelstadt, and most surprisingly, Rasmus Dahlin.

But beyond that, they sit in the top half of every category. Most notably, they have the fewest no-trade/no-move clauses, both going to bad deals in Skinner and Okposo, and they also have a lot of quality cheap deals thanks to what should be a promising prospect pool. They’re starting to have a stronger core with both Alex Tuch and Tage Thompson locked up long term, and while they still project to be a bad team this year, the fact that they have more than $24.5 million in cap space when you get rid of Ben Bishop’s deal on LTIR gives them plenty of space to make moves to keep improving. Overall, it’s a good sign for a team that hasn’t made the playoffs in 11 years looking to finally end its rebuild.

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