His cap hit was 4 million and was a back slide contract. The sabres then went through the likes of Josh Jorges, Zack Bogosian, Cody Franson, and a revolving door of trash defensemen. Christian Erhoffs Buyout was far from necessary.
but it negated the cap hit from that back diving contract. Also he's still be under contract today and if he retired the Sabres would be getting hit with that recapture. He signed a 10 year deal in 2011, he was never playing that out. If he decided to retire next year Sabres would have $5 million in recapture, in 2020 that would be $10 million, that s the type of thing that could kill a team.
If another round of compliance buyouts rolled out tomorrow you'd see productive players getting bought out again. Luongo, Seabrook, Weber, Okposo, Lucic all would be gone if it weren't for cap ramifications.