Wed Apr 17, 2013 3:45 pm
The last possible minute is impossible to absolutely say.
I suppose by letter of the law it might be considered 10 pm. But my experience is that you can continue making transactions right up until your team starts playing games that night.
For example before opening day I have made changes as late as 11:30 and had them show up without a cap hit.
Caveat there is your roster is fixed in stone at the exact cutoff time. So the player you drop may still be in your lineup for the first 3 games. But no cap penalty for the swapout. So depending on your point of view and whether you are talking starting lineup or cap penalty I missed or just made the deadline.
I assume similar patterns exist around the 41, 81, and 141 game cutoffs.