2023 NHL team salary cap rankings: #16-9

Credit: © Bob Frid

We’re now more than halfway through this season’s salary cap rankings at Daily Faceoff, having already covered teams 32-25 and 24-17 in the past couple weeks. With this series we take a look at all the different aspects of managing payroll in the cap era and grade teams based on how well they do it. The rankings are formulated through a somewhat complex process and system, which I have outlined in a summary of its own for your convenience.

This week, it’s the start of the good half of the league, where we look at the teams that do more good than bad with their salary cap. Sometimes it’s a Stanley Cup contender whose collection of elite talent is pricing themselves high enough that they can’t quite add the depth to surround it, sometimes it’s an up-and-coming team ready to break out with a locked-up young core, and sometimes it’s a team that is maybe a bit more short-term focused than they should be, but for now it’s working for all of them.

And as I outlined last week, any signings made after Sept. 1 aren’t considered for the list in order to keep it consistent. In this week’s case, for instance, the recent signing of Jujhar Khaira by the Minnesota Wild isn’t incorporated into their ranking.

16. Minnesota Wild (2022: 3rd)

Good Contract Percentage: 4th (2022: 3rd)
Quality Cheap Deals: 19th (2022: 6th)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 17th (2022: 14th)
Dead Cap Space: 32nd (2022: 32nd)
Quality of Core: 7th (2022: 1st)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 19th (2022: 1st)

The Wild were a surprise to see in the top five last year, especially with how much dead cap space they had from the buyouts to Zach Parise and Ryan Suter. But Minnesota managed to overcome that by being smart in just about every other department. Unfortunately, that dead cap space has caught up to them a bit more, and with not nearly as many savvy moves as last offseason to finagle around the buyout penalties, it hurts them a little bit more in this year’s rankings.

Of course, the Wild’s dead cap space remains their biggest weakness, as it is nearly double the next worst team’s. It’s still only Parise and Suter’s buyouts, but the amount grows this season to almost $15 million, which will be there next season as well. Minnesota also saw steep declines in their quality cheap deals and their cap space to skill differential. The former category might be the most important, because that’s what they need to work around that dead cap and still be competitive, and on top of seeing that drop from nine to six, all six of those players are either bottom-six or bottom-pairing caliber players. That results in the latter category also dropping, as they now don’t have the depth to make their roster one of the best in the league, so even being about $1.6 million under the cap isn’t justified with the roster they’re putting out this season. Add in a few extra no-trade clauses with Frederick Gaudreau’s new contract and the additions of Marcus Johansson and Patrick Maroon and it’s easy to see why the Wild dropped a lot this season.

It’s not all bad for Minnesota, which is while they still sit in the top half of the rankings, and that’s thanks to two categories sitting in the top 10. A big part of that is due to having one of the best good contract percentages in the league and only five bad contracts, with Mats Zuccarello and Jacob Middleton being the most egregious ones. The Wild also managed to keep their quality of core in the top 10 even with Kirill Kaprizov no longer qualifying, but Matt Boldy’s new contract fits in perfectly as a replacement, although Gaudreau does drag it down a bit more. Minnesota will be at a disadvantage in these rankings while those buyouts linger over their cap sheet, but they proved last year that they can still be efficient in spite of that, so it doesn’t excuse their middling result this season.

15. Arizona Coyotes (2022: 17th)

Good Contract Percentage: 25th (2022: 30th)
Quality Cheap Deals: 19th (2022: 8th)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 1st (2022: 1st)
Dead Cap Space: 18th (2022: 18th)
Quality of Core: 14th (2022: 21st)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 21st (2022: 13th)

The Coyotes made it known that they wouldn’t be a salary-cap graveyard this season and were looking to start bringing in contracts for the purpose of them actually playing and making this team competitive. There’s still a few leftover long-term injured reserve contracts remaining on the team, but that cap space isn’t needed just yet as they start to integrate their young talent into the lineup.

The Coyotes only have one category in the top 10 this season, and it’s the same one that was ranked first last year. They still have the fewest no-trade/movement contracts, so they aren’t fully committed to this group and might move on from some expiring deals at the deadline, but they also don’t know how competitive this team will be next season. They remain middling in a few other categories, and that’s why they don’t see a ton of improvement overall. They don’t have nearly as many quality cheap contracts as more young guns graduate to seven-figure cap hits, their quality of core improves thanks to Clayton Keller grading out much better than last year, and any dead cap space lost from Oliver Ekman-Larsson’s buyout was made up for by the buyouts of Zack Kassian and Patrik Nemeth.

The Coyotes did have a couple categories weighing them down as well, with one seeing improvement from last year while one fell down the rankings a bit. The improvement saw them take one of the worst good contract percentages and move it up five places, all thanks to adding a few more good contracts in the past year like Connor Ingram, Juuso Valimaki, Jason Zucker, and Alex Kerfoot. Arizona’s cap space to skill differential was the category that dropped into the 20s, and that’s the price they have to pay for spending closer to the cap while the team hasn’t seen significant changes – yet. It’s a young team with lots of promise, and with the team’s time in Arizona on life support, treating them like a legitimately competitive team could help keep them around. There’s still work to be done to get them back in the playoffs, but the Yotes are already showing slight improvement in terms of their cap management skills.

14. Seattle Kraken (2022: 15th)

Good Contract Percentage: 13th (2022: 16th)
Quality Cheap Deals: 25th (2022: 15th)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 31st (2022: 32nd)
Dead Cap Space: 9th (2022: 2nd)
Quality of Core: 12th (2022: 7th)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 4th (2022: 16th)

The Kraken’s plans for competitiveness after joining the NHL weren’t quite as bold as the Vegas Golden Knights’. Seattle played it safe and smart, and it’s starting to pay off. They didn’t take on any bad contracts, utilized their cap space as an asset to acquire good players that other teams couldn’t afford in trades and free agency, and it resulted in their first playoff appearance last season. Now that they’re up against the cap, they can’t make nearly as many changes, but with an influx of young talent entering the system, they appear to have a bright future.

The Kraken really excelled in their cap space to skill differential this year now that there is a lot more faith in the quality of their roster. The fact that their roster ranked sixth without going over the cap at all did them plenty of favours for their positioning there. They also have kept clean with their dead cap space, with only $129,910 taken up due to bonus overages. To a lesser extent, their good contract percentage saw some improvement largely thanks to having only one bad contract among their forward group. However, it doesn’t like most of their defensemen and goalie contracts, including Vince Dunn’s new extension due to the pickiness of him being a top-pair defenseman getting paid elite money. Seattle’s quality of core also took a slight hit but still ranks in the top half of the league, and that’s largely due to several players no longer qualifying and Philipp Grubauer weighing down the other three players in that group.

The Kraken did see a bit of a drop in their quality cheap deals after losing a few of their depth pieces like Alex True and Karson Kuhlman, as well as other players like William Borgen graduating to pricier deals. But what it loses in quantity, it gains in quality, as a full season from Matty Beniers improved him from a third liner to a first liner in play driving and Shane Wright’s brief NHL time saw him play at the level of a second liner. Seattle’s biggest weakness is being a bit too trigger-happy on handing out no-trade/movement clauses, with 14 of their 24 roster players having one, but that might be the cost of getting players on a team in their early years as a franchise. Regardless, they’ve been diligent with their approach to the salary cap, and while playing it safe didn’t result in a Cup Final appearance in their first year like it did with the Golden Knights, the Kraken have still managed to make noise only two seasons in.

13. Pittsburgh Penguins (2022: 19th)

Good Contract Percentage: 20th (2022: 6th)
Quality Cheap Deals: 1st (2022: 7th)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 30th (2022: 28th)
Dead Cap Space: 19th (2022: 19th)
Quality of Core: 19th (2022: 13th)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 3rd (2022: 21st)

Whether you love him or hate him, Kyle Dubas sure does know how to improve a team’s cap situation. He spent years trying to navigate the Toronto Maple Leafs’ high-end talent, and after one summer at the helm of the Penguins, Dubas has already shown some signs of improving the mess left by the previous regime. Not only that, but he managed to add another elite talent to this group despite their cap problems and offloaded several bad contracts on the team in the process.

There are a few areas where the Pens saw a bit of a drop-off, but not all of it is entirely attributed to Dubas. Pittsburgh’s good contract percentage took a big hit, but that’s because last season’s mediocre performance weighed down a lot of their veterans’ stats, as Reilly Smith, Noel Acciari and Rem Pitlick are graded in my system as the only bad contracts on the team that were added by Dubas. The Penguins also saw a drop in their quality of core, but that was due to both Evgeni Malkin no longer qualifying as well as the decline of both Rickard Rakell and Bryan Rust. Dubas’ moves did give Pittsburgh a few more no-trade/no-move clauses to worry about as well, but they were already one of the worst in the league in that regard.

But where the Pens really saw improvement was in their quality cheap deals, which is Dubas’ specialty and shows in their first place ranking. They went from eight last season to 12 this year thanks to some savvy signings like Vinnie Hinostroza, Andreas Johnsson, and Matt Nieto, and that should pay off for Pittsburgh as they need to surround their expensive talent. And finally they saw an even bigger improvement in their cap space to skill differential, with the Erik Karlsson addition being a massive reason why. Adding an elite talent like him while not giving up any players of substance is a huge help there for Pittsburgh, and the efficient spending surrounding the big names should give them a bit more to work with and help their playoff chances. Their hopes of getting Sidney Crosby and co. one more Stanley Cup may seem highly unlikely, but Dubas has at least given the Pens a better chance of being competitive.

12. Buffalo Sabres (2022: 9th)

Good Contract Percentage: 26th (2022: 26th)
Quality Cheap Deals: 25th (2022: 3rd)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 1st (2022: 1st)
Dead Cap Space: 1st (2022: 16th)
Quality of Core: 20th (2022: 9th)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 12th (2022: 13th)

The hype train in Buffalo continues to build, as the Sabres came oh-so close to a playoff spot last season but at least showed that they have a young team finally worthy of building around to compete for a playoff spot. They’ve made sure to be smart enough financially and not break the bank when the team isn’t quite there yet, but they still look great on the cap sheet going into the season, and that’s before some of their long-term gambles have even paid off for them.

One thing that really helped the Sabres’ ranking was the fact that they are the only team to place first in two categories. They continue to have the fewest no-trade/movement clauses in the league with two, which belong to Alex Tuch and Jeff Skinner, but where Buffalo saw a big improvement was their dead cap space, as they’re one of six teams with none on the books now that Cody Hodgson’s buyout penalty has finally concluded after eight seasons. The Sabres also favored well in cap space to skill differential thanks to having the third-most cap space in the league, which gives them plenty of opportunities to improve the team when the right trade or signing emerges.

That said, Buffalo did see a drastic drop in two categories, and that’s why they lose a few places overall. The worst is their quality cheap deals, which is largely due to the fact that a lot of their young talent like Dylan Cozens and Mattias Samuelsson are moving off of their entry-level contracts. The Sabres also dropped a bit in their quality of core, but much like the Ottawa Senators earlier in this ranking, it’s because a lot of it is made up of contract gambles to young players that should eventually be worth the long-term bet. That’s the same reason why Buffalo’s good contract percentage remains their worst category: a lot of contracts seem bad now but should look good when the team has finally hit its stride and the players are worth the money. Safe to say, the Sabres will be a fun team to see grow over the next few years with what they’ve managed to build and lock up.

11. Vancouver Canucks (2022: 16th)

Good Contract Percentage: 8th (2022: 14th)
Quality Cheap Deals: 16th (2022: 8th)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 7th (2022: 6th)
Dead Cap Space: 16th (2022: 22nd)
Quality of Core: 14th (2022: 9th)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 17th (2022: 29th)

The Canucks barely missing out on the top 10 may come as a surprise to many considering the mess the franchise has been not only last season, but also for most of the past decade. That doesn’t mean that they haven’t made their fair share of questionable moves, especially in the long term, but this list only focusing on their cap situation going into this season is the main reason why they look good.

Take Vancouver’s good contract percentage, for instance. On paper, it looks solid, with contracts like Andrei Kuzmenko, Ilya Mikheyev, Conor Garland, Carson Soucy and Ian Cole all coming out as good deals. But in reality, do any of those players fit a team that should be rebuilding? Not really. The Canucks also still have their fair share of bad deals like J.T. Miller, Tanner Pearson, Brock Boeser and Tyler Myers, so when it’s bad, it’s bad for Vancouver. They’ve managed to not have too many no-trade/no-move clauses on the team as well, but otherwise they sit in the middle in most categories.

The Canuck’s long-term issues are somewhat reflected in their quality of core, with Miller holding down Quinn Hughes to keep that at 14th, but it’s especially reflected in their worst category, their cap space to skill differential. It’s a middling roster that shouldn’t be right up against the cap like they are, and it also doesn’t consider the huge imbalance between their centers beyond Elias Pettersson and their winger depth, with five of them making more than $4 million and six if you include Miller since it’s his more natural position. Vancouver could be competitive this year, especially if they can avoid the disaster that was the start to last season, but if they aren’t it’s going to be hard to justify trying to compete with a mediocre team when they could fully commit to building towards the future.

10. Colorado Avalanche (2022: 1st)

Good Contract Percentage: 11th (2022: 10th)
Quality Cheap Deals: 30th (2022: 21st)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 9th (2022: 9th)
Dead Cap Space: 14th (2022: 2nd)
Quality of Core: 8th (2022: 7th)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 6th (2022: 3rd)

The team that topped off last year’s list only just sneaks in to the top 10, with the Avalanche dropping quite a bit after also seeing their on-ice product suffer. Some of that is just the nature of being in first, as there’s nowhere to go but down, but failing to see improvement in any of the six categories is not the best sign, although they still have three in the top 10, and only one in the bottom third of the league.

The Avs’ two biggest culprits were their drop in quality cheap deals and dead cap space. They were already bad in the quality cheap deal department last season with only six, and that proved to be costly for them as they were ousted in the first round by a much deeper Kraken team. That number drops down even further to four now that Alex Newhook was traded to Montreal and Bowen Byram moves on to his bridge deal, while some other cheap deals like Jonathan Drouin could be steals but don’t show up in the numbers at the moment. Colorado’s dead cap isn’t as much of a concern, because it’s just the adjustment from not including performance bonus overages last season, which they have $637,500 of going into this season.

Everything else is still really close to last year, so all in all it’s not a glaring concern for the Avalanche. While the Ross Colton addition looks like it will really help Colorado this season, Ryan Johansen and Miles Wood’s contracts look much worse, which is why the good contract percentage drops slightly. The Avs’ quality of core also stays roughly the same with Josh Manson leaving the group and Colton and Wood splitting the difference to not make a significant change, while the cap space to skill differential drops slightly with Colorado’s depth getting weaker and weaker since their Cup win. Finally, staying exactly the same in rank is their number of contracts with no-trade/movement clauses even though they add one with Mikko Rantanen finally being eligible for one this season. It’s far from a disaster for the Avalanche just yet, but you can definitely tell that their cap struggles are making an impact on the roster as they lose more depth.

9. Carolina Hurricanes (2022: 20th)

Good Contract Percentage: 1st (2022: 16th)
Quality Cheap Deals: 19th (2022: 15th)
Contracts with No-Trade/No-Move Clauses: 20th (2022: 25th)
Dead Cap Space: 12th (2022: 2nd)
Quality of Core: 22nd (2022: 26th)
Cap Space to Skill Differential: 2nd (2022: 13th)

The Hurricanes have been one of the model franchises for consistency in the past five seasons, not only making smart decisions and prioritizing the long-term in those decisions, but also by consistently being one of the best teams in the NHL and making noise once they make the playoffs as well. It’s starting to show more on their cap sheet as they just miss out on the top quarter of the league, even if their on-ice product still lacks that finishing talent to make them a true Cup contender.

The Canes saw a drastic jump in their good contract percentage, going from middle of the league to first in that regard with a tie for the most good contracts with 15 and the fewest bad contracts with three. Having a defense corps made up of four elite defensemen and two top-pair defensemen will make it hard for any of those contracts to look bad, not even Tony DeAngelo, who managed to rank as elite in every offensive category to make up for his replacement-level defense. Carolina also ranked second in cap space to skill differential because of that great defensive depth, with that alone having a higher impact than five teams’ entire rosters. Their dead cap space dropped from second but still stays in the top half of the league, and like with the Avs, that was due to the inclusion of performance bonus overages this season.

The Hurricanes had a couple categories rank in the lower end, but even then both saw improvement from last season. The fact that they didn’t see any change in their no-move/trade clauses from last year allowed them to move up a bit because a majority of the teams keep adding those to their roster every season (the average team has 7.53 this season compared to 6.59 last season). Their quality of core also improved, with Sebastian Aho, Jordan Staal, and Pyotr Kochetkov all joining a group that only had Andrei Svechnikov and Jesperi Kotkaniemi last year. Some of Carolina’s improvement is due to some smart additions this offseason, but a lot of it is also due to their roster continuing to reach new levels in terms of generating scoring chances. Now they just need that finisher.

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