from Elliotte Friedman of Sportsnet,

Now, the big question: will finances affect their on-ice decisions — for example, re-signing Eric Staal?

“No,” he replies, but due to the sensitivity of Staal’s local pedigree (and Cam Ward’s), he declines any additional specifics. What he does say is this: “In actual money, we’re going to have more than $20M coming off our cap, including retained salary to Jay Harrison and Tuomo Ruutu. Not everyone is going to be let go, you have to keep someone. But it will give Ron flexibility.”

“We’re a budget team, not a floor team. Our payroll is $60-61M.”

Can you sustain that number?

“Yes. We can handle that.”

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