Why retain $1 million of Manning’s salary?
It makes it more attractive to move him – otherwise, there’s no way they’ll take him.
Considering that we’re asking the ‘Canes to retain 70% of Hamilton’s cap hit it seemed only fair to retain 44% of Manning’s.
The beauty part of this for Carolina is they would only be paying Manning $1.25 million against the cap.
For them, if they don’t want to give him a spot (which they probably wouldn’t) they could easily put him on waivers, and – if he gets picked up then he’s someone else’s problem – but if he clears waivers they can send him down to the minors and save 950K against his cap hit per the CBA.
That brings his cap hit down to only 300K for 1 season in the minors and a handful of change for the remainder of this season.
For a team like Carolina with the most cap space in the league, that’s nothing.
Meanwhile, the Oilers have the lesser of the 2 evils in that they would still have $1.3 million for next season and a handful of change for this season against the cap should they choose to send him down to Bakersfield, which $1 million is still better than paying him $2.25 million to be a healthy scratch most nights here next season or $1.3 million in the minors.
$1 million to get him out of dodge is definitely the lesser of the two evils. It hurts a bit for next season, but it’s better than the other two alternatives combined.
You have to have a bit of a killer instinct to be a GM in the NHL, and IMO Peter Chiarelli lacks this right now. If Carolina wants to get rid of a player they want to get rid of, they have to take back a player we don’t want on our roster – but if they play their cards right, Manning won’t have much of an effect on them.