Report: Blue Jackets granted salary cap exemption to start season
Published
The Columbus Blue Jackets have been granted an exemption to fall below the NHL salary cap floor by the Oct. 7 deadline, Aaron Portzline of The Athletic reports.
The Blue Jackets were cap compliant before the death of Johnny Gaudreau. The late forward will count for $2 million against the salary cap since that amount of his $9.75 million hit was paid out in a signing bonus.
Portzline notes the league is waiving the Oct. 7 deadline to be cap compliant with the expectation the team will reach the $65 million cap floor in a "reasonable time."
According to PuckPedia, the Blue Jackets are currently set to be just below the cap floor with a total salary of $64.43 million with a roster of 21 players.
As Portzline reiterates, the Blue Jackets have had interest in adding a veteran forward, perhaps via the trade market as TSN Hockey Insider Chris Johnston reported last month.
"Don Waddell, the Blue Jackets general manager, said he still wants to get at least one more forward in house," Johnston said at the time. "The sense is that the Blue Jackets are willing to be creative in how they do that. I don’t think it will necessarily come in the form of another UFA. They’ll look at PTOs, they’ll look at the waiver wire.
"I think they’re also being pretty active on the trade market, trying to see if maybe there’s some situations around the league, maybe some younger players that could become available from other teams as they work through their own roster issues, trying to get cap compliant by opening night. But the sense is the Blue Jackets will be patient here, and they may end up getting this forward by trade, versus the traditional route in just signing one."
The Blue Jackets will open their regular season on Oct. 10 against the Minnesota Wild.