Correct me if i'm wrong but I don't think you can sign someone after you buy them out

CBA doesn't allow this

Calgary did that with Stone a couple of years ago and it was totally fine.

The only thing the league frowned upon was when Washington got another team (the Avs) to buyout Orpik before they resigned him a month later. If you buy the player out yourself there's no issue however, except for compliance buyouts but this is a regular buyout.

See my post above. Calgary did exactly this with Stone.

But only after he cleared unconditional waivers. Even then there is a 15 day window when this can occur June 15th - June 30th

seems to be ok for a regular buyout. only forbidden if it's a compliance buyout.

can't see ej signing for only 800k.

I believe this was because he signed in September or something. He wasn’t allowed to sign for a long time with them

You 100% can, but it can’t be a predetermined move aimed at circumventing the cap. Calgary did it, more typically a guy would be traded like Orpik bought out by the team he was traded to and then re-sign. Washington absolutely did circumvent the cap but good luck trying to prove it.

Ok so EJ goes on waivers as a UFA after being bought out, some team claims him and offers him a contract but he rejects it. What then? He's an UFA and can sign wherever he likes. Without a contract nobody can force him to play anywhere he doesn't want to be.

EJ could just wait until September then. Just needs to say that he has back pain and is waiting out the offseason to see if things get better, and then voila, feeling good to go in September again.

You can't buy him out until he has cleared unconditional waivers so someone can claim him under his current contract. Then he has to play for the team that holds his contract.

I'm actually a little shocked this is allowable it sounds like textbook cap circumvention to me, but the NHL has never really been known for consistency when applying their own rules.

I asked someone knowledgable about these things about that and they said "All that means is that EJ can decline to be put on waivers prior to the buyout. The buyout can happen regardless."

So yeah, either he can go through waivers to test if another team picks him up with his full caphit, or he gets bought out. Either way that $6m is cut down to size.

That is exactly what I said in both my posts. You said you wanted to resign him after the buyout and if another team claims him yes the $6M is gone but so is Johnson. I can guarantee someone will claim him 2yrs at $6M per isn't that bad and the teams with the cap to claim him he will upgrade their defense.

Dead space is bad news, especially to the tune of $2M for two years. Look at the situation the Avs are in right now.

It's effectively not dead space for the first 2 years. It's like having Johnson signed at ~$3m aav. Then the cap could go up significantly with the new TV deal in 2023 so it might be manageable to deal with $2m then.

Well if another team wants to claim him and take his full contract off the Avs hands that would be a big win for Colorado. We have Timmins/Barron/Helleson who can replace him on the bottom pair in the next year or two.

This is a link to the NHL CBA so you don't have to ask anyone. Now you can be just as knowledgable as your source.

CBA

Points for creativity but I'm more concerned about the dead money when MacKinnon and Byram are due for contracts than the next couple years with Johnson. I'd rather they just part ways with Graves and one of Compher or Donskoi (preferably Compher) and honor Johnson's contract.