NYR Viper
Registered User
Of course we would have to take salary back, but there's a big difference between taking back a player who may be cheaper and/or have less years remaining on their contract, and retaining half his salary.
If we retain, we are stuck with that cap hit. If we take back a bad contract, we can still trade that player, buy him out, or wait for the contract to run out if it isn't too long. We could send that player to the AHL and save 950k that can be used for someone else.
The player we get back might be able to contribute in some small way, whereas dead cap space is completely useless. There are plenty of bad contracts out there and I'm sure there's someone who would be willing to swap. Even if we have to grease the wheels a little bit, that's still better than 2.85 mil in dead cap space for 5 years.
This isn't 100% Staal. It could be Girardi or Nash as well.
If the Kings traded back a player who was ready for the NHL and on his ELC you could replace Staal with a small salaried player for at least the first 3-4 years