And Salei Makes 24
Fitting that Salei will most likely take Chris Chelios's #24 jersey and that he makes up the 24th player that Detroit has signed on already.
We're still awaiting the signing of Justin Abdelkader - who will make 25 players and NONE of them can be sent down to Grand Rapids without clearing waivers. Kirk Maltby, as I've said before, will have to take a two-way deal to remain with the organ-i-zation - he simply doesn't have a choice anymore.
But with 25 players to be signed soon, that means that two players will have to be moved, whether it's down to Grand Rapids, via a trade, or gobbled up on the waiver wire.
Here's the Cap Geek numbers:
Now...bare with me as I try and do some Cap math.
-
Take out the incentive bonuses to Salei and Modano (850K total) and we stand at $395,455 in Cap Space.
-
I'm going to predict that Abdelkader will sign for 2 years at a Cap hit of around $800K which puts us at -$404,545 in Cap space
-
If we move Meech ($500,000) AND Ritola ($516,667) - whether one or both finds a home in Grand Rapids with another franchise - that leaves us with $612,122 in Cap Space
-
That $616,122 will leave us with enough room for an emergency call-up with Joey McDonald, should Ozzie or Howie get hurt (and not put on LTIR).
-
That means that we would be able to keep Miller/Draper as reserve forwards and Kindl as the reserve defenseman.
What do you think?
