Photo: Yahoo! Sport
With the 2024 Stanley Cup Final tipping off on Monday night, NHL teams will quickly ramp up transactions as the draft approaches this weekend and the free agent market a week after Game 7 between the Edmonton Oilers and Florida Panthers at noon ET. Teams will look to create space under the NHL salary cap by buying out contracts. The window for this opens on Tuesday at 2:00 PM ET and closes on Sunday at the same time. NoVa Caps looks at the most likely buyout candidates across the league:
NOTE: Teams that are currently being rebuilt will likely no longer have room for a dead salary cap and such teams will not be included even though they may have players on albatross contracts. There were also some contracts that may have looked bad, but the buyout penalties didn’t make it worthwhile to buy out some of them.
- G Jack Campbell, Edmonton (three years x $5 million, 10-team NTC)
After going 21-9-4 with an .888 save percentage, 3.41 goals against average, a shutout and -14.29 five-on-five expected goals, he was above-average saves in his debut season in Edmonton, where he losing the starting job to Stuart Skinner, Campbell lasted just five games this year before being put on waivers and never recalled. He earned a .918 save percentage and a 2.63 goals-against average in 33 AHL games and will almost certainly see his contract bought out this week. The redemption costs can be found below:
Screenshots: CapFriendly
- D Jamie Oleksiak, Seattle Kraken (two x $4.6 million, 16-team NTC)
While averaging 19:39 per game (third among Kraken defensemen), including a team-leading 2:58 on the penalty kill, the 31-year-old scored two goals, 15 points, a -2 rating, .485 five-on-five Corsi-for percentage, 0.4994 five-on-five expected goals-for percentage, and 0.4905 five-on-five scoring opportunities for percentage in 82 games. The cost of buying out the final two years of this contract for Seattle, which would save nearly $4 million in cap space this season by making such a move, is as follows:
- G Philipp Grubauer, Seattle (three x $5.9 million, 10-team NTC)
The 32-year-old went 14-16-2 with an .899 save percentage (the best he has during his three seasons in the Pacific Northwest), a 2.85 goals-against average (tied for best), two shutouts and a five-on-five goals save of -5.14, above average saved in 36 games. He also lost the starting crease to Joey Daccord. The next sheet shows the cost it would take to buy out the remainder of Grubauer’s contract, which would save Seattle a lot of money over the next three seasons and spend less than $2 million in dead salary for another three seasons.
- LW Ilya Mikheyev, Vancouver Canucks (two x $4.75 million, 12-team NTC)
Vancouver is reportedly looking to sign the 29-year-old, who scored 11 goals and 31 points in 78 regular-season games and was held scoreless in 11 postseason games, but it will cost them a sweet tooth. Mikheyev was limited to just 46 games in 2022-23, tallying 13 goals and 28 points. The cost of buying out his contract, which is quite small with reasonable savings for two seasons, can be found below:
- D Nate Schmidt, Winnipeg Jets (one x $5.95 million, 10-team NTC)
Averaging 16:49 per game (fifth among Jets blueliners), including 1:32 on the power play (third) and 45 seconds on the penalty kill (tied for sixth), the 32-year-old scored two goals, 14 points, a +10 rating, .5263 five-on-five Corsi percentage, .5517 five-on-five expected goals-for percentage, and .5376 five-on-five scoring opportunities-for percentage in 63 games in the regular season but also served as a healthy crab. Schmidt had a goal, -5 rating and .5111 five-on-five expected goals-for percentage in Winnipeg’s five-game first-round exit to the Colorado Avalanche in the Stanley Cup Playoffs. His buyout would look like this:
- C Jesperi Kotkaniemi, Carolina Hurricanes (six x $4.82 million, 10-team NTC starts in 2025-2026)
Because Kotkaniemi, 23, is under 26 years old, buying out his contract would give Carolina (or another team) a salary cap hit and save them about $4 million on the cap for the remainder of the deal’s life. Kotkaniemi, who has never reached the 20-goal or 45-point mark in his six-season NHL career, scored just 12 goals and 27 points in 79 regular-season games and was limited to just one assist in 11 postseason outings. Buying out the remainder of Kotkaniemi’s deal would mean huge savings and marginal penalties for Carolina for a few seasons:
- G Jean-Gabriel Pageau, New York Islanders (two x $5 million, 16-team NTC)
The 31-year-old scored just 11 goals and 33 points in 82 regular-season games before earning a goal and an assist in four postseason games. Pageau has been held to 40 points or fewer in all four of his full seasons on the island, finishing with fewer than 20 in each season, including 15 in three of them. A buyout of Pageau’s deal would look like this:
- LW Jeff Skinner, Buffalo Sabers (three x $9 million, NMC)
Buffalo is reportedly considering buying out the remainder of the 32-year-old’s contract after Skinner’s production dropped to just 24 goals and 46 points in 74 games last season. However, he scored 33 and 35 goals in each of the previous two respectively, finishing the 2022–23 season with 82 points in 79 games. Buffalo would save a lot of money on the salary cap next season and the following if they bought out the rest of this contract:
- D Ben Chiarot, Detroit Red Wings (two x $4.75 million, 10-team NTC)
Averaging 19:47 per game (second among Red Wings defensemen), including 1:59 while shorthanded (third), the 33-year-old recorded five goals, 20 points, a -4 rating, .4356 five-on-five Corsi-for percentage, 0.4536 five-on-five expected goals-for percentage, and 0.4258 five-on-five scoring opportunities for percentage in 77 games. Detroit would receive nearly $3 million in cap space, while the cost of acquiring Chiarot’s contract would not be significant relative to their salary cap.
- D Justin Holl, Detroit (two x $3.4 million, 10-team NTC)
The 32-year-old posted five assists, a +8 rating, .4553 five-on-five Corsi percentage, .4381 five-on-five expected goals percentage and .4487 five-on-five scoring opportunities. percentage in just 38 games, where he averaged 15:05 per game (last among Detroit defensemen), including 1:01 on the penalty kill (sixth). Buying out the remainder of Holl’s contract would save more than $2 million in each of the next two seasons, while the fine would have no major impact at all.
- G Joonas Korpisalo, Ottawa Senators (four x $4 million)
The 30-year-old had a terrible first season in the Canadian capital, going 21-26-4 with an .890 save percentage, 3.27 goals against average and a five-on-five goals economy of -10 .73 above average. second-worst among goaltenders who have played in at least 50 games) in 55. Ottawa would save more than $3 million in cap space and the buyout would only make a small dent in their three-year salary cap. They would also save about $2 million for a few more seasons before the team lost money, which wouldn’t be much.
With the buyout period starting in just a few days, a few teams have some big decisions to make as they try to gain some flexibility for their plans in the draft and free agency in the coming week. There are a few cases where a buyout doesn’t make sense (like Edmonton defenseman Darnell Nurse and Dallas Stars center Tyler Seguin) because of the large amount of dead salary teams would have to endure for years. Get ready, hockey fans: it should be a very exciting week!
By Harrison Brown
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