Buyout Period (Jun 30)

The last day to put players on waivers for the purposes of a buyout saw a good number of players dropped, so we'll quickly go through the list, which starts in Boston, where the Bruins placed Jimmy Hayes on the wire to start proceedings.

Hayes, a $2.3 million cap hit for the 2018 season, only had 2 goals and 5 points in 58 games for the Bruins and those numbers didn't jive.  Hayes was hovering around as a possible hockey pool possibility, but he never really panned out.  His buyout cap hit will be under $600,000 this year and $866,667 next season.

The Flames remained significantly active, adding two players to this list on Friday, as forward Lance Bouma and newly-acquired defenseman Ryan Murphy were both let go for buyouts.

Bouma, much like Hayes, was not giving the team value for their cap hit, scoring 3 goals and 7 points in 61 games for $2.2 million next season.  His cap hit for the buyout will be $666,667 this season and $766,667 the next season.

Murphy was obviously not in the plans for the Flames, nor was he in the plans for the Hurricanes and taking on the buyout was certainly a part of getting Eddie Lack on the cheap last night.  Murphy will cost the Flames $100,000 this year and $137,500 next.

The Florida Panthers joined in on the fun by giving Jussi Jokinen his walking papers on Friday.

The 34-year old Finn was scheduled to make $4 million in the coming season, but with only 11 goals and 28 points in 69 games last season and no signs of recovery, the Panthers opted for the cap space instead.  The cap hit on Jokinen for the next two seasons will be $1.333 million, which bumps up their available cap space for the start of free agency to $15.2 million.

The New Jersey Devils were the only other team to turf two contracts on the final day of the buyouts, as they decided against moving forward with forwards Mike Cammalleri and Devante Smith-Pelly.

Cammalleri is the only one of the bunch today that had any pool value to his name, having 10 goals and 31 points in 61 points, good enough for 190th among all forwards in scoring, but with two years at $5 million per, the Devils appear to want to start fresh with their franchise and this is a good chunk of change to let go of.  The Devils will be on the hook for four years with this buyout at a rate of $1.667 million per year.

Smith-Pelly hasn't panned out as an offensive threat in the NHL yet in his career and that has now cost the 25-year old his last year of a deal that carried a cap hit of $1.3 million.  Last season, he scored 4 goals and 9 points in 53 games and he'll be out looking for a new deal this summer.

The Devils now sit below the cap floor with a projected 20-man roster, but are in the rumour mill as one of the teams bidding on Kevin Shattenkirk's services, which should sort that problem out quickly.

Finally, in Winnipeg, veteran defenseman Mark Stuart was made expendable by the emergence of both Josh Morrissey and Ben Chiarot as regulars, and since he wasn't scooped up by Vegas at the expansion draft, the Jets were left with the buyout option, ahead of free agency.

Stuart carried a cap hit of $2.625 million on the last year of his deal, which will turn into cap hits of $1.458 million this year and then $583,333 in the 2019 season.

The shutdown defender should be able to find some work this summer, just at a discounted rate.