Contender cap space meter
Trade today, or wait?
When a player is traded, his new team only carries his cap hit for the days left in the season. Every day Pittsburgh holds him, the bill to the buyer gets smaller. Drag the date to see it.
One honest catch: under cap rules in place since 2025-26, playoff lineups also have to fit under the cap (ESPN). The deadline discount helps a buyer get him in the door. It doesn't make him free in April.
Still on the ice
The product
What's been reported
The situation
Show your work
How it's calculated
The season clock
The 2026-27 regular season opened Tue, Sep 29, 2026, and all 32 teams play on Sat, Apr 10, 2027. That's 194 days, counting both ends.
The burn
$10,000,000 / 194 = about $51,546 a day, ticking every second from midnight ET on opening night. Real cap accounting moves in whole days, so the per-second figure is cosmetic.
Cap hit vs. salary
We track the $10M cap hit, the number a trade partner cares about. Actual pay dates and any bonus structure aren't modeled. Treat the big number as an estimate.
The meter
A buyer carries $10M × days left / 194, counting the trade day. On Mar 1 that's 41 of 194 days. Retention is capped at 50% of the cap hit. Retention picks are hypothetical; nothing has been reported.