Avs sneak over the salary cap floor

According to our geeky friends at capgeek.com, the Avalanche is now officially over the NHL’s salary cap floor of $43.4 million. While they aren’t infallible (they didn’t have Mark Olver and his salary on the books when I checked Sunday night), even without his minimum-wage deal, the Avs had a cap-averaged payroll right now of $44,071,066. One of the things a lot of people forgot (me included) is that Tom Preissing’s contract is still on the books, for the next two years. The Avs bought out the final year of Preissing’s contract, but the Avs still must have a hit of $916,667 this year and next. A lot of people forgot about that near $1 million on the books. A lot of you have asked if, when Peter Mueller goes on injured reserve as expected, his $2 million cap hit will come off the books? The answer is – yes, but only if the Avs choose to do do. The Avs have the choice to apply for long-term injury relief if he is expected out for 24 or more days. B...