Not every NHL team gets good value for the salary that they give out. With a salary cap of $83.5 million for every team, some teams get their roster playing to a value of $90-100 million while others have their roster play to a value of $60 million. 

Injuries are going to adversely affect this value, but if a team uses LTIR properly, they could pick up players who offset the negative value. It only makes sense to use LTIR if your team is competitive and geared for the playoffs.  

For this exercise, I use average player ratings and the average NHL salary cap hit to determine if each player brings a cap surplus or a deficit in terms of their play in the 2023-2024 regular season. For example, if a player earns $6 million AAV but has slightly below average production that's worth more like $3 million, the player brings a deficit of $3 million in salary cap hit to the team. Conversely, if an entry level player has a salary of $950k, and has a season with a value of $3 million, he gives his team a surplus of just over $2 million. The more players who have a surplus, the more competitive a team can be. 

We can then take these individual surpluses or deficits and look at each team's roster. It's ideal for each team to either break even or have a surplus. 

We are going to look at each team in the Western Conference and see what their overall surplus or deficit was this past season.

Anaheim Ducks – Deficit of $10,064,000 on $74.6 million spent, no LTIR used

The Ducks had most of their core underperform against their salary cap. Between Jakob Silfverberg (4.475 million), Cam Fowler at $4 million, Ryan Strome at $2.7 million, Troy Terry at $2.7 million, Alex Killorn at $2.6 million, John Gibson at 2.5 million and Trevor Zegras at $2.3 million, they had a deficit of just over $21 million. 

On the surplus side, Frank Vatranocame in with a value of $7.6 million on a salary cap hit of just $3.65 million, which gave him a team-leading surplus of just under $4 million. 

Other players in the surplus were Mason McTavish at $3 million, Leo Carlsson at $1.3 million, Pavel Mintyukov at $1.2 million, Brett Leason at $650k and Lukas Dostal at $600k. 

Arizona Coyotes (now Utah) – Surplus of $18,969,000 on $78.1 million spent, no LTIR used

The Coyotes did what you want a team on the rise to do in terms of their salary cap and be in the surplus. 

The Coyotes only had one player over $1 million in deficit and that was Nick Schmaltz, who I had valued at $4.5 million compared to his actual cap hit of $5.825 million. 

They got great value from Nick Bjugstad at a $3.5 million surplus, Sean Durzi at $3.4 million, Dylan Guenther at $2.7 million, Logan Cooley at $2.1 million and Connor Ingram at $2 million. They had a cumulative surplus of $13.7 million between the six of them. 

As this club transitions to Utah with a bit more money to spend on their roster, they are positioned quite well with the roster they have. 

The Coyotes had the second highest surplus in the NHL in 2023-2024.

Calgary Flames – Deficit of $4.08 million on 82.7 million spent, with $709k LTIR used

Jonathan Huberdeau had a deficit of $7.5 million as he came in with a value of just over $3 million while having a cap hit of $10.5 million. He was joined by Andrew Mangiapane($3 million), Andrei Kuzmenko ($2.9 million), Dillon Dube ($1.5 million) and Oliver Kylington (1.4 million), who had a cumulative deficit of just over $8.8 million between them. 

On the positive side, the Flames got good value from MacKenzie Weegar at $2.7 million surplus, Martin Pospisil at $2.2 million, Nazem Kadri at $2.2 million, Blake Coleman at $1.6 million, Yegor Sharangovich at $1.6 million and Connor Zary at $1.2 million. 

Chicago Blackhawks – Deficit of $13.3 million on 72.98 million spent, with no LTIR used

Surplus for anyone on this roster was a rare thing. Connor Bedard led the team with a surplus value of $5.7 million on $950k in salary cap. 

Others in the surplus were Jason Dickinson at $1.4 million, Philipp Kurashev at $1.1 million, Petr Mrazek at $1.0 million and Alex Vlasic at $900k. 

Some of the players in a deficit were Seth Jones at $4.6 million, Tyler Johnson at $3.4 million, and Connor Murphy at $2.9 million. Just between those three, they had a deficit of $10.9 million. 

Taylor Hall at $5.25 million, Andreas Athanasiou at $3.5 million and Nikita Zaitsev at $3.75 million added to the deficit with another $12.5 million. 

Colorado Avalanche – Surplus of $18.99 million on 90.96 million spent, with $7.46 million of LTIR used

Even though he now makes $12.6 million AAV, Nathan MacKinnon had a value of $17.8 million this past year. That puts him at a surplus of $5.2 million, which was well above anyone else on the roster. 

Other players in the surplus were Jonathan Drouin, Mikko Rantanen, Cale Makar, Casey Mittelstadt, Logan O'Connor, Devon Toews, Alexandar Georgiev and Sean Walker.

The few players in the deficit were Sam Girard at $2.8 million and Josh Manson at $865k. 

Colorado had the highest surplus in the NHL in 2023-2024.

Dallas Stars – Deficit of $2.07 million on 83.46 million spent, with $215k of LTIR used

The Stars were led by Wyatt Johnston and Thomas Harley who had a surplus of $6.5 million and $4.9 million respectively. 

The two young future stars were joined by Joe Pavelski and Matt Duchene, who had roughly $6.5 million in surplus between them. 

Jamie Benn and Tyler Seguin had decent years but still had deficits of $3.7 and $4.0 million respectively, because of their large salary cap hits at $9.5 and $9.85 million. 

Other deficit players were Esa Lindell, Radek Faksa, Ryan Suter, Roope Hintz and Miro Heiskanen. I had Hintz come in at $6.6 million and Heiskanen at $6.5 million. Unfortunately, they each make $8.45 million.

Edmonton Oilers – Surplus of $9.6 million on 83.55 million spent, with $206k of LTIR used

The Oilers were led by Evan Bouchard with a surplus of $6 million, Zach Hyman at $4.8 million, Connor McDavid at $3.2 million and Leon Draisaitl at $3.1 million. 

Other players on the roster in the surplus to a lesser extent were Warren Foegele, Ryan Nugent-Hopkins, Stuart Skinner and Evander Kane.

In the deficit were Darnell Nurse– who still had a value of $6.1 million but made $9.25 million – Brett Kulak and Cody Ceci.

Los Angeles Kings – Deficit of $6.12 million on 85.94 million spent, with $2.44 million of LTIR used

The Kings were led by Quinton Byfield, who had a value of $4.6 million on a cap hit of $894k. Just behind him were Cam Talbot, Adrian Kempe, Trevor Moore and Matt Roy. 

In the deficit column was Drew Doughty, who still has pretty good value at $5.8 million. Unfortunately, he makes $11 million AAV, which puts him at a deficit of $5.2 million. He was closely followed by Pierre-Luc Dubois with a deficit of $5 million, Vladislav Gavrikov at $3.7 million and Anze Kopitar at $2.9 million. Kopitar still has a value of $7.1 million which is impressive.

Also in the deficit were Mikey Anderson, Kevin Fiala and Blake Lizotte.

Minnesota Wild – Surplus of $8.1 million on 85.64 million spent, with $2.18 million of LTIR used

The best value player in 2023-2024 for the Wild was Joel Eriksson-Ek. He had a cap hit of $5.25 million but a value of $10.3 million based on my calculations, which gave him a surplus of $5.05 million.

Next in line was Brock Faber at a $4.1 million surplus, Ryan Hartman at $3.9 million, Marco Rossi at $2.5 million and Kirill Kaprizov at $2.2 million. 

On the deficit side, Frederick Gaudreau was at $1.325 million, Alex Goligoski at $1.225 million, Marcus Johansson at $1.225 million and Jonas Brodin at $1 million. 

Nashville Predators – Surplus of $6.03 million on 77.29 million spent, with no LTIR used

Nashville had some good value performances in 2023-2024 led by Filip Forsberg who had a surplus of $4.4 million. He was followed by Ryan O'Reilly at $2.5 million, Gustav Nyquist at $2.4 million, Kiefer Sherwood at $2.3 million, Tommy Novak at $2.2 million, Luke Evangelista at $1.7 million, Michael McCarron at $1.6 million, Roman Josi at $1.5 million and Jeremy Lauzon at $1.0 million.

On the negative side, Ryan McDonagh was at a $3.5 million deficit, followed by Anthony Beauvillier at $3.1 million, Tyson Barrie at $2.9 million, Jason Zucker at $2.5 million, Luke Schenn at $1.4 million and Dante Fabbro at $1.1 million. 

San Jose Sharks – Deficit of $14.2 million on 79.88 million spent, with no LTIR used

This isn't surprising to see for the Sharks as they still have to hit rock bottom before making their way back up. 

The Sharks were led in the surplus by Fabian Zetterlund at $3.4 million, followed by William Eklund at $1.7 million and Mikael Granlund at $780k. 

There were a lot of players in the deficit with Marc-Edouard Vlasic being the worst of the bunch at $6.2 million. He was followed by Kevin Labanc at $3.95 million, Mike Hoffman at $3.725 million, Luke Kunin at $1.9 million, Jan Rutta at $1.7 million, Alexander Barabanov at $1.7 million, Klim Kostin at $1.225 million and Nico Sturm at $1.225 million.

Seattle Kraken – Deficit of $20.1 million on 82.37 million spent, with $198k of LTIR used

This overall deficit kind of speaks to the underachievement of the Kraken after all of their success in 2022-2023. 

In the surplus for the Kraken were Eeli Tolvanen at $2.9 million, Joey Daccord at $2.5 million, Matty Beniers at $2.2 million and Jared McCann at $1.1 million. 

In the deficit, the team was led by Andre Burakovsky at $4.7 million, followed by Jaden Schwartz at $3.5 million, Phillip Grubauer at $3.4 million, Brian Dumoulin at $2.3 million, Jamie Oleksiak at $2.2 million, Brandon Tanev at $2.2 million, Jordan Eberle at $2.2 million and Justin Schultz at $1.9 million. 

If some of these players don't produce better in 2024-2025, the Kraken are stuck with some bad contracts. This was the second worst deficit in the NHL in 2023-2024.

St. Louis Blues – Deficit of $26.7 million on 83.37 million spent, with $12k of LTIR used

The Blues essentially had one skater on their roster play above the value of his salary and that was Jake Neighbours, who had a surplus value of $2.5 million. Backup goalie Joel Hofer came in with a surplus value of $1.7 million.

Robert Thomaswas pretty much spot on with a small surplus on his $8.125 million cap hit. 

In the deficit, the Blues were led by Kevin Hayes at $5 million, Jakub Vrana at $4.5 million, Brandon Saad at $2.5 million, Torey Krug at $2.5 million, Marco Scandella at $2.4 million, Kasperi Kapanen at $2.4 million, Nick Leddy at $2.1 million, and then Jordan Kyrou, Brayden Schenn, Colton Parayko and Justin Faulk all between $1.3 million and $1.5 million.

The Blues had the worst deficit in the NHL for the 2023-2024 season. 

Vancouver Canucks – Deficit of $163k on 86.59 million spent, with $3.09 million of LTIR used

The Canucks were led by J.T. Miller at a surplus of $4.8 million, which puts any question of his extension at ease for the time being. Miller was followed by Dakota Joshua at $3.4 million, Elias Pettersson at $3.2 million, Quinn Hughes at $2.3 million and Nils Hoglander, Elias Lindholm, Pius Suter, Filip Hronekand Brock Boeser all between $300k and $900k surplus. 

On the deficit side of things, the Canucks were led by Ilya Mikheyev at $3.1 million, Tyler Myers at $2.8 million and Ian Cole at $1.9 million. 

Vegas Golden Knights – Surplus of $1.02 million on 92.24 million spent, with $8.74 million of LTIR used

Vegas has expertly used LTIR relief the past three seasons, adding some high-quality players to their playoff rosters – much to the dismay of other teams. 

The Golden Knights are led by Jonathan Marchessault with a surplus of $3 million, followed by Brayden McNabb at $1.3 million, William Karlsson at $1.2 million, Pavel Dorofeyev at $1.1 million, Jack Eichel at $1 million, Chandler Stephenson at $960k and Nicolas Roy and Paul Cotter both at $800k.

On the deficit side of things, Mark Stone led the team with a deficit of $3.2 million, followed by Alex Pietrangelo at $2.8 million, Tomas Hertl at $1.9 million, Ivan Barbashev at $1.5 million, Alec Martinez at $1.4 million and Zach Whitecloud at $1.25 million. 

Winnipeg Jets – Surplus of $1.86 million on 83.11 million spent, with no LTIR used

The Jets were led in surplus by Sean Monahan at $3.3 million, followed by Cole Perfetti at $2.1 million, Josh Morrissey at $2 million, Mark Scheifele at $1.7 million, and Adam Lowry at $1.1 million. 

Nate Schmidt had the highest deficit at close to $5 million, followed by Alex Iafallo at $2.5 million, Neal Pionk at $1.5 million and Brenden Dillon at $1.3 million. 

The value that rosters get from their young players in their entry-level and second contracts makes me think of an example in Colorado with Nathan MacKinnon. MacKinnon was under contract for seven years at $6.3 million AAV. He had a cumulative surplus of perhaps $25-35 million in value that the Avalanche saved during that period. MacKinnon then signed for eight years at $12.6 million AAV and while Colorado might get great full value in the first half of the contract, they probably aren't too concerned for the last three or four years because they had so much banked value up to that point, that the risk is mitigated.

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Thanks for reading and if you have any questions or players you'd like me to look at please message or follow me on Twitter @gampbler15.