The Tampa Bay Lightning won’t be placing Ryan Callahan on long-term injured reserve after all. The Lightning have traded the contract of the injured forward along with a 2020 fifth-round pick to the Ottawa Senators in exchange for Mike Condon and a 2020 sixth-round pick. Callahan was diagnosed with a degenerative back disease and will not play again. He has one year left on his contract that carries a $5.8MM cap hit.
Like many trades involving the Senators recently, this deal is about saving money. While Callahan is owed $4.7MM this season much of that will likely be covered by insurance thanks to the career-ending injury. Condon meanwhile has a $3MM salary this season and the Senators did not plan on using him in the NHL given the re-signing of Anders Nilsson as the backup for Craig Anderson. The team also has several young goaltenders that need playing time in the minor leagues.
That situation also seems to be the case in Tampa Bay however, as the team now has four goaltenders on one-way contracts making at least $1.15MM. Curtis McElhinney is the presumed backup after signing a two-year $2.6MM deal in free agency, but now Condon and Louis Domingue are also in the fold. The Lightning also have Scott Wedgewood and Spencer Martin under contract for the minor leagues. The team will have to sort out who is going where to start the year, meaning more moves may be coming for the Lightning.
None of that however is the real issue being addressed for Tampa Bay. The team still has Brayden Point sitting as a restricted free agent (along with Adam Erne) but had very little cap space to get him signed. Though the team can go over the salary cap ceiling by up to 10% during the offseason, if they wanted to take full advantage of long-term injured reserve for Callahan’s cap hit they would have had to be compliant by the start of the season before designating him for LTIR. This transaction will remove that cap hit entirely giving the Lightning a good deal more flexibility to sign Point.
Tampa Bay now projects to have just under $9MM in cap space to get Point in and will obviously be burying at least two of their goaltenders before the start of the year if they are still with the organization. Fitting Point in even at a salary approaching $10MM wouldn’t be a problem, though it is still unclear how the two sides are going to approach his next contract. With Nikita Kucherov, the Lightning agreed to a three-year bridge deal after his entry-level contract expired which gave them a little more flexibility before locking him up long-term. They could do the same with Point, though the restricted free agent market has changed considerably since Kucherov signed his bridge deal in 2016.
this makes absolutely no sense.
How so? Tampa saved cap money and is a bit more flexible during the season, while Ottawa saved real money. The picks might literally be back to back though so that’s almost nothing.
McElninney was actually wanted in Carolina. Hope he enjoys Tampa!!!
ah, didnt notice the insurance coverage part. makes sense now.
another sens move to give flexibility to just meet the cap floor
This doesn’t really have anything to do about reaching the floor. This is purely just money saving. Callahan will go on LTIR and will not count against the Senators cap situation.
JD right now the sens are 5 million over the floor with 15 million potentially being able to be put on IL. Without this trade, they wouldnt have been able to put anyone on IL to meet the floor. Once Volin White’s salary is figured out they can at least put Callahanon LTIR AND save real money by not paying Condon to be in the minors.
Wait why does this impact that? Doesn’t LTIR money not go against the cap? I thought they were just doing this so uncle Euge could pay ~900k instead of 3 million.
Darkside,
I agree.
JD,
Your sens are a joke. Pretty sad when the best player on the team is 19 years old. Hainsey and Zait on d as a top pairing gonna be a long year for ya. Maybe all that money Eugene is saving he can buy you free season tickets to watch the clown show that is the sens
Do you try and be intentionally this stupid and hi-jack every thread or are you really this dumb? I’m actually kind of sick of seeing you just bully people every time you disagree with them. Don’t worry about this troll JD.
Thanks Dipoto. I just don’t respond to an obvious clown of a troll anymore. It is annoying they try and ruin every thread though. Some people really need to find a hobby or play a sport and get outside more.
Zaitsev and Hainsey are both right shot defenseman, projected top pairing would be Chabot & Zaitsev , Borowiecki & Hainsey on second unit thou both are left shot , 3rd pairing possible Brannstrom and Demelo, as I see Demelo and Jaros are right shot defenseman, unless they pick up another right shot , by trade or free agency.
link to capfriendly.com
Thou left shot I do wish they would find a way to bring Lajoie into lineup , as seen him play early into last year , he played well before injury. but couldn’t get back in lineup with what they had , most others on roster are left shot. if you look at roster.
Gerald, Marner is just trolling me for some reason. But anyways you’re forgetting about Wolanin. He’ll for sure be getting full time minutes this year, and I’d assume Demelo would be getting the most minutes with Chabot. Lajoie started out nice, but he was honestly atrocious once he came back. You can definitely see the potential, but he’ll need to settle down in the defensive end if he’s going to be able to stick around.
Thanks JD my mistake overlooked Wolanin , got distracted by phone when writing. Yeah Demelo was paired with Chabot most of year. Wolanin played mostly on 3rd pairing and was using projections on capfriendly , thou there are other sites that have line combinations , this one is best and others haven’t gotten line combinations up as of yet, Tell Marner to go take a long walk off short pier. Maybe he can talk to the real Marner in getting him to sign a realistic contract , as was story about Marner holding up other free agents yesterday, since he is a Leafs fan and blasts everybody else on their teams, cause he gets mad when others talk about Leafs, no disrespect to him in anyway. I would like to see Lajoie over Borowiecki, have other tough guys and shot blockers he has never impressed me plays to much out of control for me.
Dip,
Your so far up his A_ _ you see lep’s rainbows!
Gerald,
You were being cool but now playing as a dbag isnt cool. But whatever all good
Jd , playoffs lol hd be lucky to win a game
Marner, lep’s biggest issue is like you , you can’t take a friendly joke . but will forgive you no matter what leprechuan says about you . roflmao that’s hillbilly humor Take Care Marner.
Geralad,
Speak for yourself! I got my own back !
all good marner , take care
Marner, you say it’s sad that their best player is 19. The leafs TWO best players are 22 and 21. That’s a dumb point. McDavid was the best player in the league at 19. If you don’t know anything about hockey you should keep your bogus opinions to yourself
OfficialDip,
Cleary wasn’t talking to you but keep sticking your nose in other people’s business bud. Somethings on your nose.
JD,
You almost always respond. Did you not say you we’re going to leave here and not come back too. You don’t keep up your end of the deal we made. I’m outside daily its called exercise bud. Your an armchair qb. Ball ball 2 – 3 nights a week for many years now minimum 2-3 games a week max of about 5 or more a week. But thanks for your concern about my health. Let alone owning a pet there chief!
JimmyKing,
It is sad…. like I said because that organization is a complete utter S_ _ T show! Thank you Captain Ovious. Cleary im aware of that fact since im a LEAFS FAN. Yes thats true hes talent!