With Leights and Carbomb coming back soon we've got some moves to make. For the past few weeks there have been lots of salary cap talk for both this year (this week) and next year. Will we be able to sign this person?
Will we be able to sign that person? Now that it has come out today that the salary cap is going to go up by three million we need to ask ourselvs, "did Homer know this was coming?" The obvious answer is yes because he wouldn't have made the moves he's made if he didn't (I hope). But I digress, lets take a look at the numbers.

CAPGEEK.COM CAP CALCULATOR

FORWARDS
Andreas Nodl ($1.100m) / Mike Richards ($5.750m) / James Van Riemsdyk ($1.654m)
Winger ($1.000m) / Claude Giroux ($3.750m) / Jeff Carter ($5.272m)
Scott Hartnell ($4.200m) / Daniel Briere ($6.500m) / Ville  Leino ($3.000m)
Jody Shelley ($1.100m) / Blair Betts ($0.700m) / Darroll Powe ($1.100m)
/ / Ian Laperriere ($1.166m)

DEFENSEMEN
Kimmo Timonen ($6.333m) / Chris Pronger ($4.921m)
Andrej Meszaros ($4.000m) / Matt Carle ($3.437m)
Braydon Coburn ($3.200m) / O'Donnell Replacement ($1.000m)
Oskars Bartulis ($0.600m)

GOALTENDERS
Sergei Bobrovsky ($1.750m) /Michael Leighton ($1.550m)

CAPGEEK.COM TOTALS (follow @capgeek on Twitter)
(these totals are compiled using the bonus cushion)
SALARY CAP: $61,400,000; CAP PAYROLL: $63,085,823; BONUSES: $1,700,000
CAP SPACE (22-man roster): $14,177

Line 1: JVR-Richie-Nodl. This line stays exactly the same. Perfect.

Line 2: Hartnell-Briere-Leino. Ville gets 3 million, and that is probably overstated by 5-10%. Danny and Harts are still under contract. This line then stays exactly the same. Perfect.

Line 3: Carter/Giroux/Winger. We can find a decent winger for a million to play with Carter and Giroux. Shit, I can play with Carter and Giroux. If these two guys stay together this year into next year their chemistry HAS to get better. This line changes but the core is still the same. Not perfect, but defiantly okay.

Line 4: Shelley/Betts/Powe. Powe gets 1.1 million. This could be a 25% overstatement on Powe, but who knows. This line stays exactly the same. Perfect.

Defense: Pronger/Kimmo/Carle/Coby/Mez/OD replacement/Bartullis. OD's replacement is budgeted a cool million. We can find a 6th D-man somewhere for a million. If its not in FA than its Gustaffson, Bourdon, or Marshall.

Goalies: Bob and Leights.

Roster conclusion: Basically the same team except OD's replacement and Zherdev's replacement and a 13th winger. Our young player improvements outweigh our older players loss of a step or two and losing Z and OD.

Salary conclusion: Lieno @ 3.0, Powe @ 1.1, 6th D @ 1.0, Lappy on roster @ 1.1, and Leights for 1.5 all under the cap. I'd be shocked if Lieno and Powe and the 6th D go for 5.1. that number is probably closer to 4.5 than 5.1 but I used those numbers for the sake of argument. Now look closely to the bottom of the Cap Geek info... The cap space is 61.4. Only a 2 million increase and not the 3 million. With inflated new salaries and a deflated cap increase we still have enough money to buy an extremely expensive hotel room for one night (14K)! That was a joke, but what I'm saying is that even with all of my safety cushions on the salaries and the salary cap we still have cash left over. At the end of the day that 14K will probably be around 1.4 million, easily enough to sign a winger for Carter and Giroux for 1.5 (.5 more than I listed) and sign a 700K, 13th forward and still have about 300K in the bank for a rainy day.

PS I think Homer will wait on Leino's contract until the end of the year when that salary cap for next year comes out. Leino will not be signed for more than three years, and that is almost guaranteed. This way Homer can wait to see his limit for signing Ville and then pull the trigger when he knows he's safe. We almost make Homer out to be retarded on BSH, and although its kind of funny (okay, its really funny), he has to have SOME knowledge of how to be a GM. There has to be some picture book he can follow along that says you cant just give everyone shit tons of money and not have to worry about it.