Plenty has been written about the Salary Cap, its effectiveness, and its contribution to the spending frenzy that took place during the early part of Free Agency. The theory behind the salary cap was to allow the small market teams to hold on to their star players in order to be more competitive in the NHL.

Before the lockout, salaries were skyrocketing as the big market teams would spend lavishly on high priced players that did not have enough left to propel them forward to Stanley Cup glory. The year before the lockout two small market teams with a small payroll, in comparison to the large market behemoths such as the New York Rangers, went to the Stanley Cup Finals - The Tampa Bay Lightning and the Calgary Flames.

Teams can win with a small payroll and if anything was decided now, the Philadelphia Flyers, the New York Rangers, and the Anaheim Ducks are the top contenders. Therefore, hang up the skates boys, don’t come to training camp, because these teams are the lock to win it all!

Oh…we have to play the games during the season first? Well…fine.

Many people wonder, though, if the Coyotes will hit the minimum salary requirement. Thanks to the Collective Bargaining Agreement, revenues allowed the maximum salary cap to be raised to $50.3 million. Therefore, the minimum that a club needs to spend on player salaries was also raised to $34.3 million.

Where does that leave the Phoenix Coyotes? There are some around the league that the Coyotes are going to struggle to make it.

Thanks to two websites: nhlnumbers.com and HockeyAnalysis.com along with the current information that has already been disclosed about player contracts, the Coyotes salary cap (including the signing of Peter Mueller and Martin Hanzal) is around $33.4 million. Restricted Free Agents Matt Jones, Joel Perrault, and notably Keith Ballard have not signed their offers as of yet. Keith Ballard will most likely receive a hefty raise that he has more than earned.

Therefore, there should not be any problem with hitting the minimum threshold of salary for the Phoenix Coyotes.

Original post by PB

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