Anatomy Of A Salary Cap Crisis

In the wake of Mike Richards' new contract signing today, I figured the Flyers were painting themselves into a corner in regards to the salary cap. Never one to ignore a hunch, I opened up the Flyers page at nhlnumbers.com, took into account the new deal for Richards, and then found the following situation facing the Flyers:

• Daniel Briere - $6.5 million cap hit (8 years remaining)
• Kimmo Timonen - $6.33 million cap hit (6 years remaining)
  
• Mike Richards - $5.75 million cap hit (12 years remaining)
• Simon Gagne - $5.25 million cap hit (4 years remaining)
• Scott Hartnell - $4.08 million cap hit (6 years remaining)
• Derian Hatcher - $3.5 million cap hit (2 years remaining)
• Mike Rathje - $3.5 million cap hit (3 years remaining) yikes!
• Martin Biron - $3.5 million cap hit (2 years remaining)

That's over $38 million committed to 8 players, with the cap currently sitting at $50.3 million. I hope the flyers have a long list of players willing to play for the league minimum, because they have to fill out the remaining two thirds of their roster for about $12 million. I can already smell Kevin Lowe getting an offer sheet ready for R.J. Umberger.