I agree on Ference, but the team doesn't need the cap space this year or next, and I would take the extra few million in cap hit for next year if it gave the team the possibility of making the playoffs.
This team had no shot at the playoffs as constructed at the beginning of the year, and most people knew it. I'm not advocating taking on long term contracts, but as an example, buying out Nikitin and signing Ehrhoff or Franson to a 2 year deal would have cost the team the exact same cap hit this season and would have resulted in a penalty of only one million next season.
It would be 1.5M, may not seem like a huge deal but with over half the teams working in LTIR or being within 1M of the cap, every dollar helps.
Who's to say Chia didn't try? Maybe he buys them out and then strikes out on those UFA's cause they had no interest in coming to Edmonton. Now we are carrying around extra cap for an extra year for no reason, when the alternative is to keep these guys for the year and maybe they can be semi useful players and you can get a late pick out of them at the deadline, worse comes to worse they are gone at the end of the season.
As much as people hate to hear it, playoffs we're never going to be an option this season regardless of what realistic moves would of been made. This was a season for incoming management and coaching staff to evaluate the roster, and lay groundwork. Any deals made for mediocre players that might have giving us a slight bump would likely handcuff us if and when a deal for a difference maker became available.
