EHM The Blue Line

Hi all.

I've got a problem regarding the salary cap: currently, I'm above by roughly 2 million. So I thought of getting rid of Jason Spezza who makes 5.2 million. Unfortunately, no team wants him. I even placed him on waivers, but again nobody grabbed him up. Do you have any idea what I can do?

You have two solutions to be under the cap:
- make a trade: one of your big salaries for picks and/or prospects. However, don't expect to get much in the deal. Other teams are aware that you must go under the cap, and so you'll likely be forced to sell at a cheap price.
- remove a big salary from the roster, by waiving a player and sending him down to AHL (or ECHL, etc).

(Note that if you're in the off-season, the salary cap is calculated according to all the salaries, including the players in the AHL, but without taking their 2-way clauses in count. So your cap hit will be lower at the start of the season)

Hope that helps

Shadd666 wrote:You have two solutions to be under the cap:
- make a trade: one of your big salaries for picks and/or prospects. However, don't expect to get much in the deal. Other teams are aware that you must go under the cap, and so you'll likely be forced to sell at a cheap price.
- remove a big salary from the roster, by waiving a player and sending him down to AHL (or ECHL, etc).

(Note that if you're in the off-season, the salary cap is calculated according to all the salaries, including the players in the AHL, but without taking their 2-way clauses in count. So your cap hit will be lower at the start of the season)

Hope that helps

Yeah, I thought of letting Spezza create havoc in the AHL But then again, if I want to call him up some time later, won't he have to pass re-entry waivers? That wouldn't be cool if I still had to count half his salary against the cap

Yup, he would have to clear re-entry waivers.

However, you're only 2 millions over the cap, so why letting go someone who makes 5.2 millions, furthermore one of your top players?

You'd better clear just 2 millions, and then eventually make trades to have some more room under the cap if you want to. Check who's the less usefull player in your team that makes over 2 millions, and then try to ship him away...or waive him if nobody's interested You'll more easily ship out a player that counts for 2 millions toward the cap than one who counts 5.2M$. The reason is simple: as you're over the cap, the other team can't send you player(s) with high salaries, so they need to have enough cap room to take your player... Teams rarely have 5.2 millions under the cap

Rarely you will find a team willing to take on a salary that large. Its weird in my game certain teams budget is set way below the cap so they won't take them even though looking at the cap they have plenty of room. For example I am the offseason after year 2 and the capitals have yet to have a team over the mid 30s (the first 2 seasons most they had was 30mill). The key is to just keep shopping you will eventually come across someone willing to take one of them off your hands.

Personally, when I'm in these kinds of situations, I basically do what Shadd just mentioned - go through my least efficient players and get rid of the most expensive among them until I'm under the cap. It usually doesn't seem like much, but they begin to add up... and they're often far less missed than a better player like Spezza.

I have been known to buy out contracts, from time to time.

I usually work about $3.5-4M under the cap during the regular season so that I can spring for a proven veteran, a champion, come trade deadline... The thing is that it always becomes harder to controll the payroll as the game goes on, because players want raises and more and more players will demand league maximum. I remember in my first game, I only had two d-pairs and three lines of players 'cause I couldn't afford more depth Not that great, but after the season I bought out my biggest earner and things got back on track again...

I tend to up the cap for the second season by 2 million and the floor by 1 million. IMO, this is what the NHL should have done in real life as well.

harmonica wrote:I tend to up the cap for the second season by 2 million and the floor by 1 million. IMO, this is what the NHL should have done in real life as well.

And how do you do this? I need to raise the cap as I just signed Ovechkin to 6.4 and Phaneuf to 5.5 Mio, and I already had to trade away Morris and Phillips to do this

After I start up a game I go and change the config file so that when July 1st rolls around it will change for the next season. I rarely ever play near the salary cap so it doesn't do much for me, but allows the AI controlled teams to do more.

Search for 'salary cap' and you can find more info.

It's always fun to play way under the salary cap in EHM 2007. That leaves you a good chance to sign most of your good players back for the next year to come and plus it is somewhat easier on my mind to grab players who are put on waivers if they are any good or I need them for a few games.

Plus, it really helps when you go into the offseason as well. Most of those teams who are over the cap tend to become below it, but not that much on account of them not letting all their players go before the offseason.

All in all, I believe the easiest thing to do in EHM 2007 to get rid of some cap room is just to trade off a high paid player for draft picks or good prospects. Even though you offer him out to all the NHL teams, that doesn't mean that you can't find one to actually take him.

What happens if you are over the cap when the regular season starts? Anything?

You can't advance to the next game if you're over the cap if I recall correctly. So at that point you pretty much have to waive/demote players until you're under.

You'll be able to do deals instantaneously. If you offer a deal to another team, they'll get back to you right away and you can keep negotiating.

I have this problem in my first season with the Wings using the Lidas 1.3 database. I am almost 2million over the cap, not sure who to get rid of though, as in real life they kept all of the players I currently have on my roster.

Any ideas?