Bonuses will count against this year’s cap

From John Dellapina of the NY Daily News:

For those of you puffing on the Sundin-Jagr pipe dream, I just got an e-mail reply from NHL Deputy Commissioner Bill Daly confirming the report yesterday from TSN’s Bob McKenzie that the performance bonus cushion is not available this year.

Unless and until the NHLPA declines its option to re-open the CBA at the end of the 2008-09 season, the 2008-09 season is considered the final year of the current CBA. And there is a clause that prohibits the deferral of performance bonuses to count against the following season’s cap in the final year of the CBA. Makes sense: How can something negotiated under one system be deferred to count against what could be a vastly altered system?

Read his entire post here.

This changes things for teams that would try and throw bonus money on to next year’s cap which most think will be higher than this upcoming season.