Joe Sakic’s offseason has become a little more difficult. Thanks to performance bonuses in the entry-level contracts for Cale Makar and Alex Newhook, the Colorado Avalanche will have $1.744m in salary overage that will count against next year’s salary cap.
In the NHL, the only contracts that can have performance bonuses are the ELCs. These bonuses are paid out and are allocated to whatever cap space a team has left at the end of the season. When a team doesn’t have enough cap space to cover the bonuses, the money must be allocated to the following season’s salary cap.