I was just looking over the Leaves' roster at General Fanager...
They haven't updated on Cowan or the recent Polak ($2.5M?) re-signing.
Assuming a $3.1M cap-hit on Cowan + $2,5M on Polak...
Assuming $800K or so on each of RFA dmen Carrick, Marincin, and Corrado...
Assuming $1.5M on RFA Holland...
Assuming entry-level cap-hits on Matthews, Marner, Nylander (OR any necessary 3-more forwards)...
I think they're within a coupla mill of the off-season cap-max $80.3M
($73M cap-max + 10% summer overage = $80.3M).
So, though some juggling is possible, it would've been pretty tough to open the vault for Stamkos (pre-Polak)
.... but the straw that broke the back might have been the
sudden Cowan situation
(goodbye $700K
credit, hello $3.1M Cowan cap-hit).
Even if
on July 1 not having to count Polak/Carrick/Marincin/Corrado/Holland/Matthews/Marner
.... I estimate the most the Leaves could have offered Stamkos is roughly $10M.
If they had been able to buyout Cowan as planned they could've offered him close to $14M.
Now I could be wrong on this, but I seriously suspect Mr Cowan cost the Leaves Mr Stamkos!
I keep hearing Leafers all over the internet saying they have tons of cap-room.
Well that's not actually true right now.
Oh sure, they
will have tons of cap-space... but not until the beginning of the season
(when they can put all those players on LTIR - Horton$5+Robidas$3+Lupul$5.2+Cowan$3.1 =
$16.3M).
Until then they are severely hamstrung and thank you Mr Cowan!
