Salary cap
The salary cap is the ceiling on what your club may commit to salaries, and it rises with your league. Salaries, offers you have sent, agreed contracts, waiver claims and dead cap all count against it, and while you are over it you can't add salary.
On this page
Every club works under a salary cap: a ceiling on what it may commit to salaries. Keep enough room under it and you can sign, claim, recall and trade; run out and those doors close until you make room.
The salary cap
The cap belongs to your league. The higher the league, the higher the cap, and it is smaller at each step down. The game shows your room on the screens where you make each move.
Where you see it:
- On your team page, under Info, in the Finances section. The bar shows how much of the cap is used, with next season’s figure under it, marked Next. On a wider screen, the Cap pill in the masthead takes you there.
- In the Transfer Center. The masthead shows your cap space. In Find players, the Cap fit column marks each player Affordable, Tight or Over cap, and Fits my cap keeps only the salaries that fit.
- In Contract offers, from the Transfer Center’s Actions menu. The band at the top shows Cap this season and Cap next season: how much is used, how much is free and how much is in offers.
- On a league’s page, whose masthead shows that league’s cap.
What counts against your cap
Everything you have committed to counts, including money you have only offered. A player on your affiliate, on injured reserve or on waivers counts for less, or for nothing.
| Item | What counts |
|---|---|
| A player on your roster | His full salary |
| A player assigned to your affiliate | Only a small part of his salary this season; next season, in full if his contract for next season is one-way |
| A player on injured reserve or on waivers | Nothing |
| An offer you have sent | Its salary, until the player answers or you withdraw it |
| An offer you saved as a draft | Nothing |
| A player who has agreed to terms | His new salary, against next season’s cap |
| A waiver claim you have made | His salary as it would be in your league |
| A released player’s dead cap | Part of his salary, for the rest of his contract |
Only a player on a two-way contract can go to your affiliate; a player on a one-way contract stays on your roster. If you need room this season, a player on a two-way contract who isn’t in your lineup can go to your affiliate, where only a small part of his salary counts this season. Next season can differ: he counts in full there if his contract for next season is one-way, as most contracts become when your club is going down, and a contract that ends this season frees nothing next season. How the affiliate works is on affiliate teams.
If you are lining up several targets, keep the extra ones as drafts until you’re ready: a draft doesn’t count against your cap, and a sent offer does. An offer to a free agent counts against this season’s cap until the playoffs begin, and against next season’s too if it runs into next season; the band in Contract offers shows which season an offer needs the room in. An extension counts only against next season’s cap, since his current salary comes off when the season ends. Offers and contract terms are on player contracts.
A player on injured reserve or on waivers counts nothing, but activating him, or taking him back off waivers, needs room for his salary again. See roster and waivers.
Dead cap. Releasing a player under contract usually leaves dead cap: part of his salary keeps counting for the rest of his contract, and an extension he has agreed is included. The release screen tells you the charge before you confirm. On your Finances, the Dead cap list names each charge and when it ends. The releases that leave no dead cap are listed on player contracts.
Reading your finances
The Finances section breaks your room down. Each figure shows this season, with next season under it.
| Figure | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Salaries | What your roster’s contracts count against the cap |
| Dead cap | What released players still count |
| Confirmed space | The cap less salaries, agreed contracts and dead cap |
| Eligible space | Confirmed space less the offers you have sent and your waiver claims. New offers, claims and recalls must fit here |
| Estimated space | Eligible space adjusted for what your open trade offers would add or free |
| Pending contract | New contracts players have agreed, which start next season (shown when there are any) |
| Pending trade | The salaries of players in a trade that has been agreed and is still going through |
| Contract offers, Trade offers, Waiver claims | What each kind of open move counts |
Other managers see your Salaries and Confirmed space, and your Pending contract and Pending trade figures when there are any. Dead cap, Eligible and Estimated space and your contract offers, trade offers and waiver claims are shown only to you.
Trade offers take no room from Eligible space, so they never stop a contract offer. Where several offers share players, only the costliest counts. If you have trade offers out, plan new contract offers from Estimated space: a trade is checked against the cap again when it is accepted, and the offers you have sent count then.
Next season counts only the contracts that run into next season, the players who have agreed to terms and the offers that cover next season. Contracts ending this season drop out of it.
Over the cap
Nothing you do that adds salary goes through while it would put you over the cap. The game blocks it on the screen and tells you why:
- An offer you can’t afford can’t be sent: “This offer pushes you over the cap.”
- A waiver claim needs room for his salary.
- A recall you make from your affiliate needs room for the rest of his salary, this season and, if his contract runs on, next season too. The game’s own recalls, before a game and at the start of a season, skip that check; see affiliate teams.
- Activating a player from injured reserve, or taking him back off waivers, needs room for his salary.
- A trade must leave both clubs at or under the cap, this season and next. The trade screen shows each club’s Cap room left after the deal.
Your sent offers are checked again when a player decides. When he is ready to accept your offer, the game looks at your Eligible space, which counts this offer, your other sent offers and your waiver claims, in each season his offer covers. If you are over the cap in one of them, the board rejects the signing, the offer is gone, and you get a notification.
To make room, assign a two-way player to your affiliate, put a player on waivers, trade a contract away, or release a player, which usually leaves dead cap. A trade that lowers your payroll is refused while it still leaves you over, so look for one that brings you back under. A player you receive in a trade counts at the salary he will have in your league; see trades.
Moving up or down a league
When your club changes league, your cap changes with it: it rises going up and falls going down. Once your promotion or relegation is settled, the Next figures already use the new league’s cap and your players’ contracts as they will be there. The move also clears your dead cap.
Your players’ contracts change with the league too: some get a raise, some take a pay cut, and some leave. That is on player contracts, and how promotion and relegation are decided on leagues.
Worth knowing
- A recall you make from your affiliate needs room for the rest of his salary, next season’s too if his contract runs on; the game’s own recalls skip that check.
- When a player is ready to accept your offer, your cap is checked again for the seasons it covers, counting all your sent offers and claims; if you are over, the board rejects the signing.
- A trade must leave both clubs at or under the cap this season and next; even one that lowers your payroll is refused while it leaves you over.
- Trade offers take no room until the trade goes through; only Estimated space counts them.
- An extension counts only against next season’s cap.