Washington maybe Panik.
Carolina for sure buyout Staal.
Colorado maybe Erik Johnson.
Vegas maybe Statsny.

The "maybe" are possible but also possibly unlikely.

Boston doesn't really need to use a buyout. They can, but Moore is going to make or break them making any moves.

Wouldn't say "need" but paying 3 mil a year for an often healthy scratch for the next 3 years (assuming guys like Clifton, Vaakanainen can break the lineup and Krug is resigned) is a situation the Bruins would probably like to avoid if they have the option.

At $2.75 million Moore is cheap insurance against injury, particularly if Chara finally decides to retire.

Price ??????? Alzner way before and not because he’s overpaid means he’s bad

MTL would 1000% buyout Alzner over Price.

Neither Anaheim nor Los Angeles need a buyout. Neither is anywhere close to the cap even with the indicated contract, Backes has only one year left on his, and the Kings aren't about to enter next season with an all-rookie defense. Colorado, at the bottom of the salary/cap hit table, certainly doesn't need to buy out one of its two time-on-ice leaders.

The Dallas and Florida GM's would be committing professional suicide by signing guys to a big-ticket contract and dumping them one year later.

Carolina isn't buying out Staal and Las Vegas isn't buying out Stastny (not that you suggested either).

He's a healthy scratch because their blue-line is that deep. With everyone healthy the only spot on Boston's backend that is open is the 3RD spot. Unfortunately for Moore, Lauzon came in and brought a game that Boston needed (which Moore didn't play). He's a solid insurance policy at $2.75 million.

It's weird to see someone advocate paying a player 3 mil to not play for the majority of the season when that same team just had to pay a 1st rounder to get 4.5 mil (Backes) off the roster.... You could easily get someone like Freddy Claesson or Paul Ladue who could adequately bring whatever John Moore is bringing to the table for 2 mil cheaper... and be able to stash them in the AHL when you don't need them.

No disagreement there, but this is a weird roundabout way of saying that Bergevin is an idiot.

It's unclear to me why you don't view cap space as an asset...

Also if you're evaluating compliance buyouts with a 1 year outlook I'm not sure what to tell you....

Because whether you have $1 million or $5 million or $10 million in cap space is an equivalency.

Your second sentence is unintelligible.

Actually they also got Kase in the deal, so it wasn't like they spent a 1st just to dump cap, they got an asset back. Also assuming no cap change, Boston has roughly $20 million in cap space with really only Krug due for a big raise. They are not in dire need of cap space. They're more likely to see if anyone is willing to pay to use their CBO (if there was one) and gain assets back.

Maybe we're not looking at the same thing. Boston has about 20 mil in cap space if the cap stays the same, and somewhere between 15-20 mil in cap space between how much the cap goes down.

Using the Evolving Wild estimates (which last year were within a mil of 90% of all signings and within an average of 800k of the top 20 signings):

Krug: 7.5 mil
Debrusk: 4.25 mil for a 2 year bridge or 5.5 mil for a long term deal
Gryzelcyk: 3.75 mil

Right there that's 15 mil of the 20 mil in cap space.

Now, Boston has to sign Bjork, Kuhlman, Ritchie, (sure they all get 700k - 1 mil), but then Boston has to worry about Halak, and he's going to get a slight raise as well. Which will put them right up against the ceiling.

And I think having Halak or being able to sign DeBrusk to a long term deal as opposed to a bridge is A LOT more important than a replaceable level Dman makin 3x what he's worth...

1) Not really....if you can't comprehend the value of having 5 mil in cap space ask Toronto - 6 mil in cap space was worth a 1st rounder to them lol. Imagine being Anaheim in a rebuild and saying "nah we'd rather hold on to David Backes than get a 1st rounder from a team bumping up against the cap ceiling,"

2) I think a rebuilding team like LA is much more worried about being able to sign guys like Villardi, Kupari, Kaliyev, Fagemo, Turcotte, and Bjornfoot to long term deals 3-4 seasons from now than they are worried about who is going to be on their defense next year when 5/6 of this year's defense was rookies and AHL players anyway. Doughty's contract is untradeable today, I can't really imagine tomorrow...this compliance buyout is a gift from above and I think a smart front office like LA won't blink at the opportunity.

You're confusing having $5 million in cap space with being potentially $5 million over the cap, which was Toronto's position.

Doubt Halak comes back. They have 3 goalies set to battle in the AHL next year and Valdar put up stupid numbers in the AHL this year. I expect they'll let Halak walk and have Vladar be the back up..he'll cost very little as am RFA.

Sweeney has also been very good at getting his players to sign below market value.

No way Doughty gets bought out! He’s still a top D. Anyone that says he’s not doesn’t watch many kings games. By the time the kings need to resign Vilardi, Kaliyev, Turcotte etc etc to big deals Brown, Carter, Quick, and Prob Kopi will all be off the books by the time money is an issue. Kings could get 3 or 4 more good years easy out of Doughty and buy him out Later and it wouldn’t cost them but like 3.5m against the cap. Cap won’t be an issue in LA for quite some time. Blake has even stated many times that they are building the kids around Doughty and Kopitar

The Kings were significantly better with Doughty off the ice this season....tbh he wasn't even a top Dman on the Kings this year.

Like I said don’t watch many kings games. I agree his contract sucks. No one (maybe McDavid) is worth 11 mil. Especially for that many years. But he’s still a top D. Especially on the kings

His contract sucks.....this year. In 2-3 years it's going to be miserable. In 4-5..... The point is....get out while you can. If you can't trade him (which you can't), don't let him be a drain on your franchise.