This week's Capped examines the Dallas goaltending cap situation brought on by their three-headed goalie monster.

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It is already understood that the Vegas Golden Knights are going to be the biggest storyline of the offseason. However, the Dallas Stars’ goaltending situation could be the next hottest topic due to their massive slice of the Dallas salary cap pie. Their 2017-2018 cap space will be eaten up by three goalies that will combine for a cap hit over $15-million. No other team has even two goalies making more than $4-million. The question is, what does Dallas do about this?

Dallas’ Cap Makeup

Before jumping to any kind of conclusions, we need to lay the groundwork of where Dallas stands in the cap world. After next season, both Niemi and Lehtonen’s contracts are up, so this season is all we are going to look at. Going into 2017-18, the Stars are not in a bad spot. They currently have 14 skaters under contract, and just under $16 Million in cap space to play with. Raises are due to Brett Ritchie, Radek Faksa, and a few depth defencemen, but none of these new contracts project to break the bank. Right off the bat we know that Dallas really isn’t under huge pressure to make a desperate move with one of their goalies. However, if they plan on taking advantage of the peak years of Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin, then they should look into making a splash on the trade or free agency front. This would mean that there would in turn be a little more pressure on making the money all fit under the salary cap. Moving forward from there, here are four routes that Dallas can take.

Buyout

In the short term, a buyout makes sense because it is the easiest path to take. However, past this year, it will be the worst path to have gone down. Right now, if one (or both) of Niemi and Lehtonen were to be bought out, then they would become free agents, and Dallas would just be rid of most of this headache. This would simplify things because they do not need to negotiate with another team, and they do not need to deal with the media circus of sending a proven* NHL goalie down to the minors.

(*Do they still count as proven if they are just plain bad?)

On the other hand, the buyout would stretch the contracts out past this year, making the option much less appealing, especially to a team with a window to contend over the next few seasons. Fortunately, having only one year left on the contracts means that the buyout cap hit would only extend to next year, and no further. Below are the buyout details as shown by capfriendly.com.

Spending money wisely is the name of the game in the salary cap era, and somehow, spending money for someone to not play for you just doesn’t seem like a good allocation of resources. If it does come to this though, then there is the short-term benefit of a minimum extra savings of $3-million for next season, which Dallas could put towards bringing in another defenceman to solidify their back end.

Burying a Contract

As another internal option, burying one of the contracts in the minors may be more feasible than initially anticipated. There will still be the large cap hit, and yes Dallas has to pay it, but as was discussed above, their cap situation isn’t dire enough that they wouldn’t be able to manage it. Sending either Niemi or Lehtonen to the minors would only actually shave off $925,000 for each contract, as the $925,000 mark is the largest contract that can be sent to the minors without the balance of the contract counting towards the cap. So, for example, $925,000 of Niemi’s $4,500,000 would be covered in the minors, and $3,575,000 of it would still count towards Dallas’ cap hit.

Sending one of the goalies to the minors would mean that Dallas would have two goalies on the roster, with goaltending eating up $14,391,667 of their cap space. This is not ideal by any means, lending itself to the idea that this likely isn’t the route to be taken by Dallas if they have another option.

Trade/Expansion Selection

Looking outside the organization for a solution, there is no way that Vegas decides on their own that they will select Niemi or Lehtonen in the expansion draft. The only plausible scenario in which one of the goalies gets selected would be where Dallas really sweetens the pot to move one of those contracts. It would also be very pricy to work out a straight trade convincing them to take one of the Dallas goalies. With the contracts as they are, and Vegas wanting to stay closer to the salary cap floor for flexibility, it would be a tough sell. Unless Vegas gets a king’s ransom out of Dallas, then there likely won’t be a deal that makes sense for both sides.

Now, at this point it may seem like Dallas would have a better shot at trading one of their goalies elsewhere; not likely so. For one there aren’t really any teams that look as though they need help reaching the cap floor. Second, is that Niemi/Lehtonen will still want to play somewhere, so they will be taking starts away from someone else in their system who needs it for their development. Finally, with all the movement due to the expansion draft, teams should be able to fill holes without getting a solid add on to a trade from taking on an awful goalie contract. It is a real possibility that Dallas will not be able to find a trade partner for either goalie.

Last season, the Detroit Red Wings had to part with the 16^th overall selection in the entry draft as part or a bigger trade that saw Pavel Datsyuk’s contract end up in Arizona (keep in mind that Datsyuk wasn’t being paid by Arizona, nor was he taking up a roster spot). It is possible that we see an even steeper price this time around in trying to move one of the Dallas goalies. Dallas owns the third overall pick in the draft, and they have made it known they are shopping the pick. A straight trade for the third overall would be too pricy, however if Niemi or Lehtonen was to accompany the third overall pick in a trade where Dallas received a mid-first round pick in return, then there could be a few takers.

Stay Idle

The last option for the Stars is to stand pat for the time being. They could keep all three goalies, and wait for something to happen. It is very possible for someone to get hurt, for a trade offer comes along, or if one of them goes on a big winning streak… (some things are less likely than others). We just never know what is going to happen. However, there is little point to having three goalies taking up cap space and roster space at the NHL level, so if it comes to it, Dallas should just send one of Niemi or Lehtonen down to an affiliate club, and put the situation to rest.

There is also the possibility that Dallas does the unexpected, and parts with Ben Bishop, leading to another season of the Niemi/Lehtonen mess. Stranger things have happened, but it is not something to be putting money on. No matter what happens, expect an active offseason from the Dallas Stars, and some potentially creative maneuvers to make all the pieces of the puzzle fit together.

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You can find me on twitter @alexdmaclean where I will be on top of the Dallas goalie news & cap situation, as well as providing other (mostly) hockey related tidbits and musings.