What's James Young's contract situation?

[Big333223]

He will be a UFA. And, the most we can offer him is the same amount of money that we declined on his team option for next year (i think it was 2.2 million?)

You've sort of got it right.  He will be an unrestricted free agent.  He will have a cap hold of $2.8 million (that's what his declined option was.)  So, if we wanted to go over the cap to sign him (i.e. use Bird rights), that's the most we could pay him.  However, we will be under the salary cap, so if he plays well and there are not better ways to use the cap room, he could be re-signed using cap space to any amount up to the max salary.  I think we'll find better ways to use the cap space myself, but I want to clarify that we are not limited to paying him just what he would have made if we hadn't declined the option.

You can't sign him to more than you would have paid him if you had exercised his option.  That includes using cap room.  This is to prevent teams from getting around the rookie scale and giving a player extra money.  Other teams can sign him for the max.

You're right.  My mind apparently is shot this week.

But as an UFA the C's would still have the option to match, no?

No, the C's would only have the option of matching if he were a restricted free agent.

Sorry, I missposted. I was thinking he was still restricted. My bad.