Ciphering

This is going to be a moving target that could change throughout the evening (Heatley could approve trade, Neil apparently is mulling an offer from the Oildrop) but this gives us a nice line in the sand with regard to the current roster and where we are in relation to the salary cap. The cap is currently $56,800,000 for the 09-10 season and the numbers below (cap #) are courtesty nhlsalaries.com.

1. Khabibulin 3.75
2. JDD .625

DEFENSE

1. Viznovsky 5.6
2. Souray 5.4
3. Gilbert 4.0
4. Staios 2.7
5. Grebeshkov 3.2*
6. Smid 1.0*
7. Strudwick .700

CENTER

1. Horcoff 5.5
2. Gagner .875
3. Pouliot .825
4. Cogliano .875
5. Brule .800

LEFT WING

1. Penner 4.25
2. O’Sullivan 2.925
3. Moreau 2.0
4. Jacques .525
5. MacIntyre .537

RIGHT WING

1. Hemsky 4.1
2. Nilsson 2.0
3. Pisani 2.5
4. Stortini .7

23 players, total cap dollars sit at 55,387,000. Oilers have about 1.4M in room if my estimates (and math) are spot on. I like this roster moving forward much more than the Heatley roster. It’s a bit top heavy (the top 8 earners will bring in $35.5M, which is about 63%) and the team needs help at center and a scorer on LW. I’ll keep this updated throughout the evening.