Soundwave
Registered User
- Mar 1, 2007
- 72,141
- 27,826
You are missing the point.
IF Neal is toast after next season, the Flames will likely buy him out or demote him to the AhL until the time is right.
What they won’t do is trade him for a proven toxic capdump / contract today. That would be idiotic. Looch has nothing to do with how the Flames will handle Neal this off-season.
Obviously the Flames will hold onto him to see if he rebounds.
That buy out would be pretty ugly, at 3 years remaining, means a cap penalty for the next 6 years.
Burying him in the AHL isn't really that big of a cap savings, basically the NHL removed this loophole as the only cap savings you get really are to use on a player on a cheap contract to replace his roster spot, so you still basically are stuck with the same cap hit overall, you're just have some young player playing in the spot Neal would be in.