I was one of the people who, at the time, noted the 50-contract restriction.
The only way I know to dump contracts of lower-tier prospects with no or limited future is to waive them for purpose of unconditional release. If that was done carte blanche (by any team, for more than one player) it would be the first instance I'm aware of, and I've been following hockey for decades.
There may have been a better way to retain picks / prospects during the Murray tenure, but to believe ALL, or anywhere near all, the draft picks could have developed in the Sabres system long enough to keep only the blossomed flowers and discard the weeds is a definite stretch, IMO.
Logically, if every team could dump a half-dozen contracts at any moment, only a fraction of those could land with another team. The rest would have the fate of the next round of "musical chairs" and find themselves on the outs without a team.
So saying a half dozen could be dumped immediately would fairly be described as hyperbole. But if we take the time machine back and plan on the O'Reilly trade and nothing else, borderline sneaky tank for Matthews/Laine.
I don't see how the contract issues really come into play, because most of those picks will still never deserve a contract.
Lets say you commit to 25 contracts to nhl roster guys.
Lets say that you have 15 contracts in Rochester that count and the other ten or so are ahl deals.
That leaves you 10 deals left for some elite junior players that neee another year in the CHL.
We knew at the time, pre drafting Eichel after Sam, that at least two of these high picks are going right to the nhl.
So realistically you would need to find contracts for say the lehner first,the Kane first and a couple high seconds.
If your 3rd rounders or higher hit, they inevitably will need years before a contract, especially ncaa or euros.
Mathematically I have a hard time understanding how the contract pile up would occur if you took the slow and steady approach. We had an epic amount of picks overall, but really only 5-6 of those picks were likely to be worth even a first contract, let alobe say 10 of them.
Now the flip side of this situation and how they strategized, is that I think it would be dumb to wait out and use all those picks, because a lot would miss anyway and have no value. So trading some for known talent was the move, which also cleared up any kind of prospect jam.
I wasn't immune to that concern at the time, but in retrospect I just don't see how the problem realistically comes to fruition.