Meet the man who shrewdly manages the Golden Knights’ salary cap

Walk into Andrew Lugerner’s bureau astatine City National Arena astatine immoderate fixed clip and the country is astir definite to beryllium the same.

He volition beryllium sitting astatine his desk, laptop open, with astatine slightest 5 to 7 spreadsheets connected the screen.

“When thing happens, there’s seldom ever a surprise,” Lugerner said. “We’ve astir ever thought of it.”

The Golden Knights are 1 of the twelve oregon truthful NHL teams that tip-toe the wage headdress tightrope connected an yearly ground successful pursuit of a Stanley Cup.

Since entering the league, they’ve expertly navigated a convoluted system, uncovering originative ways to compression successful big-dollar contracts oregon accruing regular headdress abstraction that enabled them to upgrade astatine the commercialized deadline.

The idiosyncratic performing that balancing enactment down the scenes is Lugerner, whose rubric is officially manager of hockey ineligible affairs. But he’s amended known arsenic the “capologist” for the Knights.

“Andrew’s relation is tremendously important,” wide manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “No decisions are made without important input from Andrew what the ramifications volition beryllium with respect to the wage cap, some successful the abbreviated word and the agelong term. There’s a batch of variables that spell into immoderate hockey decision, and that’s wherever his relation is invaluable.”

Passion for the job

Lugerner was an avid sports instrumentality increasing up successful Potomac, Maryland, and had attended a crippled astatine each NBA, NFL, NHL and Major League Baseball stadium/arena arsenic of Jan. 1, 2016.

After a two-year stint with the nonprofit Teach For America, Lugerner was deciding whether to be instrumentality schoolhouse astatine UCLA and was introduced to respective alumni who sold him connected the program. Among them was the woman of Don Fishman, the adjunct wide manager and manager of ineligible affairs for the Washington Capitals.

Lugerner and Don Fishman shared the aforesaid hometown and instrumentality schoolhouse on with a passionateness for hockey. The 2 made an contiguous connection, and Lugerner spent 2 summers arsenic an intern with the Capitals moving for Fishman connected wage arbitration cases.

For 1 case, Lugerner traveled to Toronto connected his ain dollar to beryllium portion of the hearing.

“He has specified a passionateness for it that I knew helium would beryllium palmy wherever helium ended up,” Fishman said. “Once helium started astatine a instrumentality firm, I was ever trying to deliberation of him to assistance him scope his extremity of moving for an NHL team.”

Lugerner graduated from UCLA successful 2013 and worked arsenic an subordinate astatine Latham & Watkins successful New York, chiefly handling mergers and acquisitions deals.

When George McPhee was hired arsenic the Knights’ wide manager successful 2016, helium reached retired to Fishman to urge idiosyncratic for the enlargement team’s all-important relation of wage headdress expert.

Lugerner was astatine the apical of the list.

“He was surely inexperienced, but he’d been to instrumentality schoolhouse and worked for a large steadfast successful New York and had a mathematical caput and the intelligence firepower to bash the job,” said McPhee, present the Knights’ president of hockey operations. “And due to the fact that helium was being recommended by Don, that was bully capable for me.”

Lugerner moved into the Palms casino aft being hired, and the erstwhile mathematics teacher spent a twelvemonth learning the intricacies of the corporate bargaining statement and wage cap.

He besides studied the cardinal components of squad gathering and identified the pitfalls to becoming a contending team. During the mock enlargement drafts held wrong the Knights’ warfare room, Lugerner served arsenic the enlargement rules adept portion monitoring the interaction each prime would person connected the wage cap.

The Knights exited the enlargement draught with a roster that would spell connected to scope the Stanley Cup Final, headdress abstraction to weaponize and a warfare thorax of assets.

Lugerner proudly noted that precocious signed defenseman Daniil Chayka was drafted successful the 2nd circular this summertime with a prime that primitively came from New Jersey for Nikita Gusev.

“So present we are 5 years later, we’re inactive bearing fruits from that,” Lugerner said. “My role, I ever spot myself arsenic taking the agelong presumption due to the fact that I privation to marque definite we support showing up each twelvemonth with a squad that tin contend for the Stanley Cup. Because if you halt showing up, you halt having a chance.”

Managing the cap

Since their inaugural season, the Knights person spent to the wage headdress ceiling and beyond, with Lugerner crunching the numbers to marque it work.

Along with managing the club’s day-to-day wage headdress strategy, Lugerner, 35, handles subordinate declaration negotiations. That means it’s his work to hammer retired deals specified arsenic Mark Stone’s eight-year, $76 cardinal hold successful 2019, past acceptable that wage nether the cap.

“You’re sometimes connected an land due to the fact that he’s dealing with an cause and we’re putting immoderate unit connected him to get a woody done,” McPhee said. “It’s not an casual job.”

Lugerner helped execute the Knights’ wage headdress strategy during the 2019-20 play erstwhile Nicolas Roy and others were shuttled backmost and distant to the American Hockey League arsenic often arsenic imaginable to accrue wage headdress space.

That allowed the Knights to get goaltender Robin Lehner, and Lugerner figured retired however overmuch wage needed to beryllium retained by Toronto for the woody to get done.

“It was to thousands of dollars wrong what we needed to marque it work,” helium said.

Last season, Lugerner jumped done much wage headdress hoops to acceptable successful Alex Pietrangelo’s seven-year, $61.6 cardinal declaration and $12 cardinal worthy of goaltenders.

He projected the Knights would person to marque roster sacrifices successful immoderate games and went done the past of each squad that dressed abbreviated successful the wage headdress epoch to assistance McPhee and McCrimmon marque an informed decision.

“I deliberation radical truly look up to the occupation Vegas and Andrew person done successful navigating the wage cap,” Fishman said, “and not lone connected a day-to-day ground but connected a year-to-year ground and doing contracts with immoderate big-name players and however to acceptable that wrong the cap.”

Managing the wage headdress this play doesn’t fig to beryllium arsenic analyzable for Lugerner, with guardant Alex Tuch ticketed for semipermanent injured reserve aft offseason enarthrosis surgery.

But the Knights stay 1 of the league’s astir assertive teams and ever person thing brewing that volition support Lugerner connected his toes.

“Andrew has pulled rabbits retired of his hat,” McPhee said. “We archer him who we want, and helium finds a mode to marque it happen. And to date, he’s made it each happen. We’ve done immoderate existent gymnastics with the wage cap, but it’s ne'er going to beryllium an obstacle for us.”

Contact David Schoen astatine dschoen@reviewjournal.com oregon 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ connected Twitter.