Things This Blog Assumes You Are Familiar With But May Not Be

I'm going to use the dreaded first-person here - I'm assuming you know a lot of things if you're reading this blog, but you may not, and it's kind of presumptuous for me to assume that you do. I'm trying to avoid explaining things over and over too.

First:

The Salary Cap in 2008-09 was $56.7 million. I am assuming it will stay the same or go down slightly to around 53-54 million.

Second:

I assume you are familiar with players and things going on around the NHL, e.g. I didn't mention that Steve Mason will almost certainly win the Calder Trophy, nor did I mention how awesome he is. This may cause some posts to look fractured, but I'm trying to discuss what options these teams have.

Third:

I've also been not explaining in every post that this color means it's an estimated contract based on being a restricted free agent. The estimates are unscientific - I look at the stats and conjure up what I think they will get paid. I am not taking into account the possibility of going to arbitration - some of my contract estimates may lay in between what a player would make going to arbitration vs. what they'd make on a long term contract. I've also been assuming that all RFAs will be tendered a contract, although that is likely not the case.