Drive-By Body Pierce

Holy $&!#...new levels of delusion here from Leafs fans/media...

https://www.pensionplanpuppets.com/2021/7/9/22563847/the-first-nhl-buyout-window-is-open

This Season’s Buyout Predictions

Some GMs have openly said they would consider buyouts or are expected to. The Oilers, the Flames and the Canucks are the obvious three teams that have albatross contracts they need off their teams.

As shown by last year’s list of bought out players, it’s often the last step before effective retirement for a player, but not every bought out player is at the end of their career.

Vancouver could clear a bit of space by buying out the last year of Loui Eriksson’s deal — he played seven games last year — but by burying him in the minors, he costs them $4.875 million, and a buyout of his remaining season costs $4 million this coming year and $1 million next season. The cash savings are only $1 million.

Meanwhile if they choose to remove the final year of Brock Boeser’s deal, they accomplish more. Boeser, at $5.875 AAV, has a salary this coming season of $7.5 million. His contract expires as an RFA with arbitration rights, guaranteeing him that inflated amount unless the Canucks simply refuse to issue a Qualifying Offer next offseason. They either need to find a trade partner who wants him, hope Seattle takes him, or they just have to let him play out the deal, knowing he’d need to agree to a lower salary to be a player they could keep.

A buyout saves them more than his full cap hit this season, in fact, due to the salary and AAV discrepancy, he has a negative cap hit (or a cap credit) of -$375,000 this coming season and only $1.25 million next year.

Choosing to just live with Eriksson’s cap hit, and buying out Boeser is a much better idea for the Canucks in terms of freeing up cap space, but it does lose them a useful position player. If the Canucks go that route, Boeser could rival Wennberg for the best UFA option to sign off a buyout.