Your Darling response misses the point, is not apples and oranges, and is inaccurate. By the time Jones would be dealt, there's four years left. Two and four years and 1.6 mil difference is hardly the difference between hard to move and immovable. We just saw a Lucic for Neal trade this past off-season for dollar figures and years left in the bracket Jones is in. He is clearly movable and it's along the same lines as how Darling who was an actual AHL goalie got moved for a similarly bad contract.
To your second bit, I don't buy the whole literally written that Vlasic was willing to go to Montreal because it was Kurz but even if you believed it then the logical conclusion is that Montreal didn't want him because nothing materialized. And the closer you get to the expansion draft where Vlasic continues to show that he is just a reputation player at this point, the less likely he will find suitors until after. I'm not making the case that Vlasic can't be dealt or that he won't waive but you're dreaming if you think this team will do what you're suggesting to make that happen. But he is still harder to move than Jones because his contract is longer, more limiting than Jones, older, and further in his decline than Jones is. This is Vlasic's fourth consecutive year where he has sucked and he's shown no signs of turning it around on a consistent basis. At least with Jones, there is some evidence that the coaching changes has helped his game. He has made slight improvements under Boughner and Nabokov's coaching. Granted, it's not close to enough but a full off-season of coaching and a team that should be better, healthier, and more adjusted to the expectations of the new coach that was a far cry system-wise to the previous one would likely yield better results.
And to your last point, that's true but to what extent you have to pay is different. If you buy out Jones, you're absolutely going after a starter with starter's money needing to be doled out. Like it or not, with Jones here, the options for a starter is expanded to more riskier bets. Those guys that are 1B or unknown potential starters are put on the table in such a scenario. They are not if you buy out Jones because you have nobody that even has some NHL experience in the fold much less starter experience. The other thing to consider is what other dominos fall from this. If you buy out Vlasic, you're saving 7 mil in a spot where you don't have to spend 7 mil to fill in the gap left behind by Pickles. If you buy out Jones, you definitely are spending at least 5.75 mil to get a replacement goalie and you're not utilizing anything to address other roster needs. But in reality, the biggest reason to buy out Vlasic is because of expansion draft ramifications. I sincerely doubt anyone will trade for Vlasic this off-season given the current realities of the NHL. The cap could be dropping with expansion after next season. Vlasic is a force-protect and people got in a crap ton of trouble because of those during the Vegas run and they're going to avoid it. There's no reason for any team to trade for Vlasic until after that.
