Since it was such a slow day in the NHL it set my mind to wondering. With all the Salary Cap issues facing not only the Flyers, but many teams in the NHL right now, what can you get in today's NHL for $59.4 Million? And thanks to the folks at Capgeek.com, I was able to find out...

We are going to take a little trip through Fantasy Land.

Of course I realize the possibility of ACTUALLY constructing a team like this would require an alignment of all nine, that's right NINE planets (When I was in school Pluto was a planet, as far as I am concerned, it still is) , a Solar AND a Lunar Eclipse all happening at the same time. But here we go anyway, I hope you'll tag along, so in the immortal words of Mr. Gene Hart..."Buckle your seat belts, it's gonna be a bumpy ride."

So I have constructed a team that last year accounted for:

1. 330 Goals

2. 544 Assists

3. 961 PIMs

4. As a team were +49

Based on the lengths of their current contracts, I will have:

3 players to re-sign in 2011-2012

11 players to re-sign in 2012-2013 (this is the only really tough year)

5 players to re-sign in 2013-2014

3 players to re-sign in 2014-2015

0 players to re-sign in 2015-2016

1 player to re-sign in 2016-2017

Without further ado, here's what I got...

P. Sharp ($3.90M)  -  S. Koivu ($2.50M)  -  D. Brown ($3.175M)

J. Hecht ($3.525M)  -  R. Peverley ($1.325M)  -  R. Bourque ($3.33M)

G. Latendresse ($2.50M)  -  S. Ott ($2.95M)  -  M. Recchi ($1.95M)

J. Jokinen ($1.70M)  -  C. Giroux ($822K)  -  Clarkson ($2.67M)

T. Enstrom ($3.75M)  -  S. Robidas ($3.30M)

K. Quincey ($3.125M) -  T. Lydman ($3.00M)

N. Kronwall ($3.00M)  -  K. Foster ($1.80M)

K. Lehtonen ($3.55M)  -  T. Rask ($1.25M)

On the Bench...

(C)F. Nielsen ($525K), (C)E. Christensen ($925K), (D)K. Russell ($1.80M)

I have my full 23 man roster.

Total Cap Hit: $55,871,667

Available Cap Space: $3,5828,333

And this concludes our trip through Fantasy Land.

Again I realize this team configuration would be almost impossible to put together, but it is just an example showing that a competitive team can be put on the ice without Cap Circumvention (and I didn't even make it through the whole league when perusing the rosters and the various player's Cap Numbers). There are no Superstars on this squad, maybe a couple with the potential (Brown, Giroux, Rask, etc), but I would rather have 18 regular skaters that are all going to put up a 35-55 point season. Rather than 2 or 3 guys making $6-7M(+) which would cripple my ability to fill out the remaining roster with a full compliment of quality NHL talent. It also helps to prevent any Prima Donna's from being created.

So I hope you enjoyed our little diversion, perhaps - for just a moment - it took away the thoughts of Jody Shelley, Matt Walker, and only $300k under the cap...