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Rangers waiving Sean Avery could screw up Dallas’ salary cap situation

With the news today that the Rangers put excitable forward Sean Avery on waivers to send him on his way out of New York, the storylines are many. After all, anything that Avery does is put under the microscope and examined.

One aspect of his impending demotion to the AHL, should he go unclaimed that is, is how that move affects the salary cap. No, not the cap of the Rangers who will clear out his salary from their books one way or another, but rather on the his previous team that bought him out.

The Dallas Stars are close to the salary floor, according to CapGeek, and they’re still paying Sean Avery this season $1,937,500 to continue not playing hockey in Dallas. The Stars’ payroll is currently at $49,905,000. If Avery lands in the AHL, his salary cap hit not only comes off the Rangers’ books but the Stars as well. The quick math there shows that by Avery’s cap hit going away, the Stars’ payroll dips to just over $47.9 million, just under $400,000 under the salary floor.

Dallas Morning News’ Mike Heika says the Stars are ready for this.

The Stars were originally under the impression that Sean Avery’s salary cap hit would remain no matter what happened, but they found out today that if Avery does go to the minors (the NY Rangers have placed him on waivers), that his $1.9 million would come off of their salary cap.

That could have them dancing perilously close to the salary cap floor of $48.3 million, but the Stars say they should be fine.


With the Stars’ roster virtually all set for now with 23 players, scraping up that extra money to reach the $48.3 million salary floor means having to potentially make a move that isn’t in the team’s best interests. The tough part here for Dallas is that they don’t necessarily have anyone making big money to bring up to swap out with a less-costly player for the bench.

Stars GM Joe Nieuwendyk has been good about keeping costs down (obviously) while the team goes through an ownership and franchise sale mess, but now he’s going to have to get creative and find a way to shuffle money around to make it work better so the Stars can reach the salary floor.