Quoting: BeterChiarelli
Edmonton retains what it would cost to buy Neal out today in order to avoid the extra 2 years of a $2M hit, not to actually factor in a buyout.
Neither Detroit nor Edmonton are cash-poor teams. Looking at this through the lens of actual dollars owed is nonsensical. It's strictly about cap hits in this case.
I'd rather keep the two 1sts and draft Sebastian Cossa with the 21 pick. A Neal buyout probably isn't necessary anyhow (you've overpaid Staal and Barrie shouldn't be coming back) and you can get better goalies on the UFA market without spending so much draft capital. A 2022 1st for a backup? No thanks!
Past 1.5 years:
Driedger: 23 starts, 2.24 GAA, .929
Rask: 55 starts, 2.21 GAA, .923
Halak: 42 starts, 2.29 GAA, .920
Grubauer: 59 starts, 2.29 GAA, .919
Merzlikins: 40 starts, 2.51 GAA, .919
Raanta: 40 starts, 2.79 GAA, .919
Ullmark: 46 starts, 2.63 GAA, .916
Koskinen: 52 starts, 2.87 GAA, .913
Stalock: 36 starts, 2.67 GAA, .910
Mrazek: 42 starts, 2.57 GAA, .908
If you look at some of the underlying numbers - 5v5 HDSv% for instance - Merzlikins looks even worse as he's clearly playing behind a team that makes a goalie's life easier than most:
Rask: 6.44 HDSA/60, .852
Grubauer: 7.44 HDSA/60, .852
Driedger: 7.31 HDSA/60, .844
Koskinen: 8.63 HDSA/60, .837
Mrazek: 8.01 HDSA/60, .830
Halak: 6.72 HDSA/60, .828
Ullmark: 6.99 HDSA/60, .816
Merzlikins: 6.14 HDSA/60, .815
Raanta: 8.54 HDSA/60, .805
Stalock: 5.18 HDSA/60, .797