Cap Casualties - Looking for Advice!

[Leancats]

Hey everyone, hoping to collect multiple opinions as to what options I have for my current cap situation. I went all in last year and fell short by 1.5fpts for the championship. Looking for some GMs to take the wheel so to speak and let me know what you would do. I have my ideas but I want to turn over every stone I can.

Here’s the situation:

Salary Cap Dynasty 12 Teams
Skaters: G1 A1 PPP.0.5 GWG1 SHG2 Goalies: Win2 SO2 OTL1
4C 4LW 4RW 6D 2G 5Bench 12Minors
Dude Where’s Makar?
C: RNH Malkin Pettersson Stamkos
LW: Zegras Guentzel Kaprizov Marchand
RW: Pastrnak P.Kane M.Tkachuk Necas
D: Sandin Montour Makar Toews Skjei Hutson
BN: Byfield Holtz
G: Sorokin UPL
IR: Drysdale Mintyukov
Minors: Smith Moore Goyette Blake Cagnoni Miromanov Poirier Dumais Wolf Nikishin Commesso

I have 12 players who are going to sign for more or have already signed for more than what they currently make. I’m projected to be over cap by $29.5 million.

With it being a dynasty, I’m dealing with typical stereotypes (veterans are too old and worth nothing/prospects or young players are overvalued).

Here are some of my wild thoughts:
1. Try to trade or let go Sandin Montour Skej and Toews to save up roughly $25mil and tinker from there.
2. Let some of my veterans go (Malkin Marchand) which would free up $12mil.
3. Trade Petey for a package of multiple young players, a prospect, and a first round pick and shed that almost $12mil contract.
4. Trade Guentzel and Necas, who have been inquired about and are garnering the most interest next to Petey. Problem here is GMs know I’m in hot water and the offers are below average.

These are just a few of my thoughts. Looking forward to hearing what anyone else can come up with!

[Bubba55]

Oh my. I know you were hoping for a lot of answers here but in over 400 views I'm the first. Why? Oh my! This is just not good and to be fair the folks on the forum are likely not going to spend hours trying to figure out how to get you out of this mess, it's complicated. I have played CAP leagues for years and I don't recall any GM being 29.5 Mil over the CAP. 15 - 20 is on the high side but not uncommon, and that's still a shit load of ass pain to try and deal with, been there and done that. I don't know what your league is like, but if it's like most CAP leagues the other GM's are lined up to put it to you big time and the reality is you either drop guys or take what is being offered, pennies on the dollar. Cut throat, but that's the way it is. All the ideas you had and then some need to be pursued, you can lessen the damage, but I think your team is taking a big hit for the coming year. One strategy I will suggest is look to retool with some younger players, in other words trade vets and the big CAP hit for prospects on ELC's and for draft picks this year and next. You take a step back this coming year, but you can come back strong the following year is you move the right players and add the right players. Anyway, a challenge for sure and it's not the end of the world, but you're likely in for a busy summer/fall prior to your draft to get compliant and re tool your team. Good Luck.

[newfcollins]

Your choices are pretty limited. You may be forced to make bad deals just for the cap savings. You talk about letting Toews go, for example. But maybe in trade discussions the best you can get is a third round pick. Well, that's better than letting him go for nothing.

Keep in mind too, when you are trading these players, you'll probably get contracts back as well. ie - You trade a player making $9 million for someone making $4 million. So you only save $5 million and am now $25 over the cap. You trade EP to shed that cap, but unless you are only getting back picks/prospects, you're getting salary players back. You may not save as much as you think on some of these deals.

[Leancats]

I really appreciate both you taking the time to respond. Rep to you both! I’m in talks with three GMs and am hoping to have some deals done soon. Focus is on ELC contracts to replace what I’ll be losing. Hoping to not have to give up Pettersson but he may fetch me my biggest return if I do. I’ll update as I go along the off-season.

[tobias]

I've been playing in a salary cap (hit) league for a decade now, and this is a very common off-season issue for teams. Going all in for the win is absolutely commendable and what fantasy sports are all about. Tough to finish 1.5 points behind the championship (literally, just one 1 PPG or 1 PPA), but here you are regardless.

A few thoughts from me:

- I wouldn't pay Sorokin 8.25 million. He might be closer to a split with Varlamov than the clear run-away number one, and the Islanders aren't a playoff team. If I were you, I would look for someone who thinks that he's smarter than everyone else and continually focuses on the long term, and see if you can trade Sorokin for another goalie. For example, the Saros owner might be starting to sweat a little bit, with him one year out from being a UFA.

- I wouldn't lose any sleep over taking the lowest offer or dropping Skjei (I never take the lowest offer if it's so bad that I would rather the other owner spend a higher draft pick that he's offering to draft the player). I'm simply not interested in a sub-50 point, non-PP1 potential defensemen who will likely be making over $7 million. I won't lie; in this format (points), I'm treating Toews the same way. If nothing else, these guys, or similar, will be in your FA pool throughout the year, so no need to hold them now. You may wish to consider Montour in the same manner as these guys, although he has a PP1 role and has, at least once, shown a much higher ceiling, so he's probably a hold for now.

- Remember that you can't just trade or drop a bunch of big contracts and then be fine. You have to drop/move even more in order to get cap space to fill in your roster. If you were to move/drop Pettersson, Skjei, and Toews, that almost gets you your cap savings, but you still have no cap space and three empty spots to fill.

- I love targeting post-type sleepers; the players who others spent top 5 draft capital on, don't have the patience to wait on, and are ready to trade for the next shiny new toy (prospect) - just to restart the "waiting to develop" cycle all over again. I'm looking at guys like Rossi, K. Johnson, Holtz (you already have). Lafreniere would have been a great target last summer. I like the Drysdale on your roster. Those guys who are cheap, were once considered very high-end prospects, and are still young enough to develop nicely. They seem to cost sub-$2 million, and will be ready to plug into your lineup right away to help you this year (your team will be strong again, I can tell).

- Trading Pettersson would be tough, but the return you describe is very nice considering your circumstances. With your league being a points-only league, with a bonus for STP, it's very easy to determine the value of these players (points per million dollars). I would be curious to see the calculations on that, because I almost feel like Pettersson is the worst value forward on your team. Speaking in generalities, he would need to score nearly twice as many points as Malkin or Marchand to be as valuable as those guys.

Keep us updated throughout the summer. The off-season is a lot of fun in cap leagues! Take your time with moves and enjoy the ride. Best of luck!