Marco Kasper has now been sent to the AHL 15 times this season. Why?

A look at something that came up today on social media and I wanted to discuss a bit more.

For close to a month now Marco Kasper has been a fixture on the Detroit Red Wings top line with Lucas Raymond and Dylan Larkin.

In his past 15 games Kasper has 13 points (7 goals, 6 assists) after having seven points in his first 35 contests.

Whether it’s a coincidence or causation, Kasper’s play has taken off since Todd McClellan took over for Derek Lalonde and the 20-year-old has played a key role in driving Detroit back to recent relevancy.

So while his linemates are currently in Montreal, prepping for the 4 Nations Face-Off, Kasper was officially sent back to the AHL on Saturday, for the 15th time this season.

Here’s an example of the Grand Rapids assignments in just the past two weeks.

Kasper isn’t likely going to play for Grand Rapids Griffins during this 4 Nations break, in fact he hasn’t played an AHL game since October, so why does he keep getting assigned back to the AHL?

There was some confusion about this on social media today, so I figured I’d explain here.

For starters, Kasper has not been driving back-and-forth to Grand Rapids. His AHL send-downs, “paper transactions” have been strategically done on days the Red Wings don’t have a game or practice so the Red Wings can save some cash and capital.

With Kasper’s two-way deal he makes $866,666 in salary this season when he’s in the NHL. NHL players are paid per day and with 186 days of “work” in the regular season, Kasper effectively makes just around $4659.49 per day on the NHL roster. In the AHL his salary is $82,500, meaning Kasper makes roughly $443.54 per day on those days he’s been papered down.

From a team perspective, it’s a bit of a cold and calculated way of saving every possible penny of cap space and cash. For Kasper, it’s a bit of a raw deal and something he really can’t do much about in the first year of his entry-level contract.

It’s also common practice in the NHL, with teams doing everything possible to finagle the numbers. Remember, cap space is king.

The Red Wings right now are projected to have $2,761,978 in cap space at the end of the season according to Puckpedia. Part of that will be eaten up by Patrik Kane’s performance bonuses, which is one of the reasons Detroit, despite having space, is being shrewd with Kasper’s NHL-AHL distinction so often.

One thing that multiple people have brought up to me is this — doesn’t this feel a bit cruel by the Red Wings? Randomly taking $4,000 a day out of a young player’s pocket seems harsh, right?

I have asked Kasper about this directly, but the only thing he’s ever said to me about the frequent paper transactions is “that’s not for him to worry about.” And because this is Year 1 of his deal, and the team has all power, there isn’t much Kasper can worry about now anyway.

But it does remind me of a story from earlier in my career when I was covering the Dallas Stars in Miro Heiskanen’s rookie season, and the Stars in theory, could have papered Heiskanen to the AHL for cap reasons. Stars assistant GM Mark Janko told me at the time that “sometimes you have to think about the human over the cap hit, especially with first-round picks.”

Just some food for thought on a potentially confusing situation.