Pittsburgh Penguins – Marc-Andre Fleury – G – 2 years remaining at $5M
Fleury has blown it in two straight playoffs and never earned his reputation as a top end goalie, in fact he’s rarely ever even above league average. Tomas Vokoun is old so he isn’t the future, but neither is Fleury. Time to shed an unnecessary expense for a team that’s always against the cap.
New York Rangers – Brad Richards – C – Six years remaining at $6.67M
This is more likely to happen next year than this one since Tortorella was fired, but it’s still pretty likely to happen. Richards has predictably taken a step into the elevator shaft as he’s gotten older, and that rich contract is a lot of cap space to waste for a team that likes to spend at least $6M on a new player every damn summer.
New York Islanders – Rick DiPietro – G – Five hundred years remaining at $4.5M
Can the Islanders afford this? Well Charles Wang can but he’s cheap as it gets so no. The rumour is that the Islanders will trade a prospect or pick along with DiPietro to a team willing to buy him out.
New Jersey Devils – Anton Volchenkov – D – Three years remaining at $4.25M
A team in extreme transition, half the roster is up for new contracts, which means all that cap space may evaporate quickly. Volchenkov has been a huge disappointment since he was signed by the Devils, and it wouldn’t be surprising to see them decide to move on from him in favour of retaining Elias and Clarkson.
Philadelphia Flyers – Danny Briere – C – Two years remaining at $6.5M
The Flyers have apparently already decided that this is a done deal, as the injury prone center is now 35 and rarely helps out. The Flyers are desperate for upgrades on defense, and since they didn’t tank well enough to draft Seth Jones, that means they’ll need to cough up some cash.
Do any buyout candidates interest the Habs?
A big no to basically everyone in this group, although there is an interesting option. If Bergevin is able to trade Tomas Kaberle, using the Canadiens‘ last amnesty buyout on DiPietro could bring with it a top end prospect. There were rumours that the Islanders would be willing to part with Ryan Strome in order to move their long term bust of a goalie, which would give the Canadiens a second A+ prospect after Alex Galchenyuk.
Also STAY AWAY FROM BRIERE.
