Carter Officially Signs; A Cap Outlook

According to TSN, Jeff Carter has officially signed the deal that was mentioned a week ago for 3 years, $15 million. Carter's annual cap hit will be $5 million. When Carter's deal is up, he will still be a restricted free-agent, so the short time frame turns out to be the better move for the Flyers.

I'm very excited to be staying in Philadelphia,” said Carter in a statement. "We have great group of guys on this team and I can't wait to get back on the ice and continue where we left off last season."

After the deal, the Flyers cap number is at about $52.292 million (see actual numbers after the jump). The league-wide cap is $56.7 million, so that leaves the Flyers with about $4.402million left. The above number does include Denis Topelko, Claude Giroux, and Ryan Parent. I've also gone ahead and put Mike Rathje on LITR. It does include Derian Hatcher as if he will be on the roster and playing. So, the flyers have about $4.4 million to sign new acquired defenseman Steve Eminger and re-sign Randy Jones and Riley Cote. The Flyers will also ponder whether or not they want to re-sign RFA Patrick Thoreson or Jim Dowd. The Flyers at whether Stefen Ruzicka or Kyle Greentree will be up with the big club or with the Phantoms as they are both RFAs.

Here's a look at the current cap numbers via NHL Numbers:
Forwards
Daniel Briere - 6.500
Mike Richards - 5.750
Simon Gagne - 5.250
Jeff Carter - 5.000
Scott Hartnell - 4.200
Mike Knuble - 2.800
Joffrey Lupul - 2.312
Scottie Upshall - 1.225
Claude Giroux - 0.850
Steve Downie - 0.822

10 Forwards = 34.709
Update: Denis Topelko was removed because he is returning to Russia. My mistake. All the numbers are updated.

Defensemen
Kimmo Timonen - 6.333
Derian Hatcher - 3.500
Braydon Coburn - 1.300
Lasse Kukkonen - 0.875
Ryan Parent - about .850

5 Defensemen = 12.858

Kukkonen, Parent, Eminger, and Niskala will all likely compete for the 5th and 6th defensemen spots, so these numbers could fluctuate. Eminger would be more than Parent and Kukkonen, but Niskala contract will likely be substantially less. The Daily News has reported that Jones is nearing a contract that would likely be for 2 years and at about 2.75 million per year, which would really limit their eligibility to sign any FAs.

Goaltenders
Martin Biron - 3.500
Antero Niittymaki - 1.225

2 Goaltenders = 4.725

16 skaters and 2 goaltenders = 52.292

If the Flyers do sign Randy Jones to that expected contract, their cap would be at $55.042 million, which would give them about $1.658 million in cap space. However, they will have a little more room depending on which AHL/NHL players they decide to carry on the Flyers roster. If Hatcher does indeed retire, the Flyers will have about $5.158 million in cap space or $7.908 million before the Jones deal.