The salary cap is going up to a TSN reported 59.4 million.  I'm not 100% sure what this means for the Ducks, because as Arthur constantly reminds me, they operate on an internal budget.  Still, it's comforting to know there will be a little bit of extra cap space if the Samueli's allow Murray to use it. 

On a different tangent, my heart was a little broken to find out that Chicago did the smart thing and traded Big Buff to a place where he couldn't come back to haunt them, Atlanta. It's no secret that I wanted him to come here, but the thing to notice is that he was sent in a package that included Sopel and Eager.  That's 5 million in salary and Ben Eager's RFA raise that just went out the door, with only Mary Reasoner's 1.15 going back.  The Hawks are about halfway to the 8 million they'll need to shave to ice a team, considering the almost 3 million of free cap relief they just got from the league.  That means there might only be one more guy available via trade.  It might be safe to say that the Ducks might not get in on the Chicago sale.  

Just some stuff for everybody to contemplate and discuss.