Islanders Buyout Witt

The Islanders placed veteran defenseman Brendan Witt on unconditional waivers on Friday morning, with the intention of buying out the final year of his deal, which has a cap hit of $3 million. Witt cleared waivers on Saturday afternoon and the Islanders pulled the trigger on the buyout on Sunday, making the 35-year old defenseman an unrestricted free agent.

BRENDAN WITT BUYOUT FROM CAPGEEK.COM
2010-2011: $1,333,333
2011-2012: $833,333

The Islanders are obviously not hurting for cap space, since they are among the bottom teams, all below the cap floor, at the moment. Rather, I would assume that they were trying to deal Witt through the early part of the off-season, but no one would take on the cap hit for a 35-year old defender, who only played in 42 games last season.