Buyouts

[Willie Dog]

Poll closes at 7pm Saturday

I chose Hoffman and Drouin... least amount of time to recover... no one will take Drouin, even at the trade deadline and no one will take hoffman.

[drkcloud]

Hoffman needs to go..

Even though he's not listed, I have to say Gallagher,past heroics not withstanding, he's just not worth what he's getting paid.

[folatre]

As a last resort, buyouts have to be looked at. However, they are not a magic bullet because pain gets extended over a longer (2x) time horizon.

Thus, the easiest guys to buy out would be those who have only one year remaining on their contract (Drouin and Byron).

If we are talking about guys who, from a hockey perspective, have some degree of value then I would imagine that Hughes would first attempt to trade players A, B, and C with some $ retention before resorting to a buyout because guys with hockey value can yield assets in return (assuming Montreal can retain enough to make something win-win), whereas buyouts yield no assets whatsoever.

This will be a fluid situation because Hughes will have a lot of different irons in the fire.

[PTH]

I'm not seeing any buyouts...

Drouin can be given a chance to show if he's got something to give when healthy.
Dvorak was considered a great contract a year ago, I'm sure he'd have some takers, though maybe not for a first and a second.


Armia and Hoffman are the tough ones... I'd give them at least one more season, though. I wouldn't be surprised if either or both got moved for similarly bad contracts, just to change things around.

Kind of like Lucic for James Neal.

[Tankdriver]

No buyouts.

Plus we are still paying Alzner for 2 more seasons at over 850K. If we would of kept him in the minors one more year, this would be over now. All the players above have value to some extent. If we could dump Armia or Hoffman, for players with a shorter contract or a year shorter I'd be okay with that.

[frozone]

I agree with Tank, there's no point in buying players out considering we're likely to miss the playoffs again next season. We can afford to be patient with our bad contracts.

Rather than extend the pain, I would rather trade them and retain salary.

[Andrew]

I concur with the no buyouts plan. One of the few positives this season is that we burned a year on all bad contracts. Next year we're not contenders, and likely not in the playoff hunt so burn another year of contracts. Next offseason is when I'd contemplate buyouts if there's a compelling reason to when the time comes.

[Willie Dog]

Not sure I can watch another year of Hoffman, Wideman and Armia... even if we buy out hoffman we reduce our cap hit by over 3 million for 2 years and then have 1.67 extra for the following 2 years... the cap should go up by 24/25 and the 1.67 wont have that much of an impact...

[Tankdriver]

Wideman is a free agent and Armia does have some value out there and isn't an achor of a contract. Hoffman will be tradeable in a year.

[PTH]

Apr 20, 2022 11:59:24 GMT -5 Willie Dog said:

Not sure I can watch another year of Hoffman, Wideman and Armia... even if we buy out hoffman we reduce our cap hit by over 3 million for 2 years and then have 1.67 extra for the following 2 years... the cap should go up by 24/25 and the 1.67 wont have that much of an impact...

But all kinds of players will be expecting raises based on the new cap, and the more competitive we are, the more important it is to have our full cap available.

All that being said, I'd rather Hoffman in the AHL and Dauphin (or a Pitlick) in the lineup than any kind of buyout that prolongs the cap pain.

The really problematic deals will be Price, Armia, Gallagher, Petry if we have to take one in return and Anderson if his play goes down due to injuries/age.

[The Habitual Fan]

I am against any buyouts, but I see the only possibility being Gallagher. He is just too much term for the production he offer.

Drouin is a decent playmaker when healthy and although not the next superstar like we all wanted, he does produce points regularly.
Dvorak is much better under St. Louis, but then so is everyone. He can still be a good 2nd or 3rd line center for a few years.
Armia is not overpaid or on a long term deal and shows up in the playoffs, so tradable next season.
Hoffman scores in bunches but is not highly paid and could be moved to a team that has trouble scoring goals, especially if the Habs retain $1 million in salary. I would approach his agent and tell him to look for a deal with another team after the season.