Blue Jackets granted cap floor exemption to start season

The NHL and NHLPA have informed the Blue Jackets that they won’t need to comply with the $65M cap floor when opening night rosters are due on Oct. 7, The Athletic’s Aaron Portzline reports.

Columbus was projected to be below the floor after the death of Johnny Gaudreau and his brother Matthew, who were struck by an accused drunk driver while riding bicycles near their New Jersey home. The $2M signing bonus they paid him on July 1 will still count against this season’s cap, according to Portzline, but PuckPedia projects their opening night roster will still be roughly $575K below the cap floor.

The league will waive the deadline for the Blue Jackets with the expectation that their roster’s cap hit will exceed $65M in a “reasonable time.” Columbus has had a reported desire in the past few weeks to add a veteran forward via a minor trade or off waivers, and adding a league minimum salary via that transaction will get them over the hump. There’s no longer a rush to make such a move before the start of the season for general manager Don Waddell, though.

Portzline adds that the exemption described was exactly the plan Columbus presented to the league pending NHLPA approval. Evidently, the players’ union did not push back.