Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Salary Cap and the Nine Game Injury List

Thinking about the Riders going over the cap yesterday, I was wondering about the nine game injury list. If a player is put on the nine game injury list, his salary while on the list does not count against the cap. How does the nine game list work at the end of the season? Say the Cats, with three games left last year, they know they won't make the playoffs. Could they put a bunch of their more expensive players on the nine game list for the last three games to get under the cap if they were over? If putting players on the list would put them under the cap, could the team renegotiate a contract and pay a player a bonus during the last three games to get back to the cap and then pay him less the following year, thus potentially leaving more cap room for the following year? Seems to me, if you're sucking towards the end and know the team will miss the playoffs, there's some manipulating that could be done to leave you better off next year.

I do remember last year where the Cats could have released Casey Printers before the half way mark of the season (veteran players have their contracts guaranteed after nine games), however he ended up "injured" during that crucial period so they couldn't have released him anyways, Certainly in hindsight it would have been better if he had been released.

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