The Buyout Period Has Begun

The Dallas Stars made it official on Tuesday, as they used a compliance buyout to drop defenseman Aaron Rome from their active roster.  Rome had one year remaining on his current deal, which carried a cap hit of $1.5 million.  Rome spent most of the 2014 season either injured or playing in the minors for Dallas, only figuring into 25 games and registering 1 assist.

Since it is a compliance buyout, his figures won't count against the cap over the next two years of the buyout period.  From my Pool Outlook, nothing changes in the figures I had quoted, as I didn't have Rome in the projected roster, so they are still sitting with a $48.1 million cap hit for 14 players.

The Buffalo Sabres, on the other hand, will be removing a player from their projected roster, as they placed forward Ville Leino on waivers for the purposes of buying him out.  Leino has three more years on his deal, which had a $4.5 million cap hit for each one of those years.  In 2014, Leino only managed 15 points in 58 games, ranking well down in pool scoring.

Leino's buyout is expected to be a compliance buyout, which won't hurt the team against the cap, but it will be six years on the books, in real cash, down the line.  Buffalo's cap numbers have now dropped to 16 players at $35.2 million, which the team will now have to work up to the cap floor before anything else.

Also on Tuesday, the Vancouver Canucks placed David Booth on waivers for the purposes of buying out the 29-year old winger.  Booth had one more year left on his deal at $4.25 million, which didn't work out for the Canucks, who only got 19 points in 66 games from him in the 2014 season.  Booth failed to reach the top 300 in pool scoring in each of the last two seasons, which ultimately led to the decision to cut him loose.

The Canucks are now down to 16 players on their projected roster, carrying a cap hit of $54.6 million (approx.), leaving a fair bit of space for the seven player spots left on it.