8 NHL Players Who Could Be Bought Out This Offseason

As the Stanley Cup playoff field gets whittled to the final four teams, the rest of the league is looking toward the offseason. Even though there's the NHL draft and free agency to come, buyouts are first on the docket.

When the Stanley Cup is hoisted above the heads of the championship team, 48 hours later the league buyout window opens and teams have until June 30 to decide if they'll do it or not.

We'd like to think that buyouts are easy to predict, but with the salary cap jumping to $95.5 million next season and climbing well beyond that in the two seasons to follow, things could work out a little differently.

Or, maybe, with all that bountiful cap space, teams will feel emboldened to get themselves a little more space by eating a contract (or two) and paying for it at a lower rate for twice as many years as are left on it.

Stay weird, NHL economics.

Philipp Grubauer, Seattle Kraken

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Contract: Two years left, $5.6 million cap hit

New Kraken GM Jason Botterill has a fair bit of work ahead of him trying to get the Kraken straightened up and back to the postseason. Even though the former GM, Ron Francis, is his boss, he'll have to make some moves to clean up some of his missteps.

One of those could be buying out goalie Philipp Grubauer. Seattle snagged him as one of their first big signings after he had a great season with Colorado in 2021. He was meant to be the guy that locked it down for a new franchise and he kind of did that!

Only now, the starting job belongs to Joey Daccord and Grubauer's performance this season was more detrimental than helpful to the Kraken. Seattle needs to have better support for Daccord not only to keep him fresher but to make sure they can stay up when he's not playing.

According to PuckPedia.com, a buyout of Grubauer's contract would be on the books for four years and save the Kraken nearly $4 million against the cap next season and $2.8 million the following year. The cap hits over the four years would be $1.9 million, nearly $3.1 million, and $1.68 million the final two years.

Conor Sheary, Tampa Bay Lightning

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Contract remaining: One year, $2 million cap hit

There's seemingly never a moment when the Lightning aren't right near the upper limit of the salary cap and they're the masters of figuring out how best to use every dollar available to them every day of the season.

Heading into next year, they've already got more than $90 million committed to the books and going into a new season with roughly $5 million to spend helps make it more of a challenge for GM Julien BriseBois. Not every buyout has to be a monster one and if the Lightning buy out the final year of forward Conor Sheary's deal, it'll save them $1 million right away against the cap.

Sheary spent most of this season in the AHL with Syracuse and played in just five games with the Lightning. While his many years in the league were valuable to the players coming up through the system in the minors, it's a lot of money to spend for a team tight to the cap to do that.

Justin Holl, Detroit Red Wings

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Contract remaining: One year, $3.4 million

When GM Steve Yzerman signed defenseman Justin Holl to a three-year, $10.2 million contract, it was one that was questioned by just about everyone from fans to us media knuckleheads all at once.

Last season, Holl was the odd man out of the lineup for the bulk of the year and played in 38 games. This season, he was in for 73 of 82 games, fourth most among Wings defensemen, although he spent the first couple weeks of the season in the AHL after he was waived in October.

With Holl 33 years old and the Wings in need of defensive help, buying him out both does and doesn't make sense. They need the depth, but they also need better players on the blue line.

Holl has just one year left on his deal, and the Red Wings aren’t stressed for summer cap space (a little more than $21 million). Still, unless Detroit plans to snag a truly big fish in free agency—Mitch Marner, perhaps—the $2.2 million they’d save against the cap this year could be useful.

Tristan Jarry, Pittsburgh Penguins

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Contract remaining: Three years, $5.375 million cap hit

Remember when the Penguins signed Tristan Jarry to a five-year, $26.88 million contract two years ago and everyone said it was a bad idea for GM Kyle Dubas to do that? Yeah...we definitely do.

Just two years into the deal, we saw Jarry waived and sent to the AHL this season only to find his way back after that when the other Penguins goalies fared no better. His .892 save percentage was the lowest of his NHL career and so was the 3.12 goals-against average. Buying him out makes a world of sense especially since the Pens have a ton of money committed to their star players.

However, Pittsburgh is set to have more than $24 million in cap space this summer and if you haven't looked at the goalie market for free agency, finding upgrades at the position for a No. 1 goalie are not exactly there. Backups aplenty, but starters are only going to be found via trade.

The Penguins aren't stuck with Jarry. They could absolutely buy him out and pay him out over the next six years, but if they do that, who are they replacing him with? Alex Nedeljkovic had his moments this season and rookie Joel Blomqvist did as well, but it's a rough spot to be in for Dubas, especially if they're trying to get back to the playoffs.

Pierre Engvall, New York Islanders

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Contract remaining: Five years, $3 million cap hit

Hoo boy.

When the Islanders parted ways with Lou Lamoriello after this season, the first thing a lot of us did was look at the legacy he left behind on Long Island and a big part of that involved some of the questionable extensions he signed there. One of those belonged to big forward Pierre Engvall.

Engvall's seven-year, $21 million extension was mind-blowing for the length of the deal. Engvall wasn't a core member of the team, and they'd just acquired him from Toronto at the trade deadline a few months previous. His role was greatly diminished this season. He averaged just under 12 minutes of ice time per game with 15 points in 62 games and the prospect of those numbers getting better over the next five years of the contract seem dubious at best.

Arthur Staple of The Athletic said Engvall could be a buyout candidate back in March, but now with new GM Mathieu Darche in place, saving $2 million against the cap for the next five years with a $1 million cap penalty for the five years that follow that sounds like it would be really useful.

Yes, Engvall's buyout would be paid out over 10 years, but the Isles aren't strangers to buyouts of unbelievably long contracts. At least his extension wasn't for 15 years, right? Of course, Engvall's seven-year extension out of the blue wasn't the only one that summer of 2023...

Scott Mayfield, New York Islanders

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Contract remaining: Five years, $3.5 million cap hit

Islanders defenseman Scott Mayfield was the other depth player former Islanders GM Lou Lamoriello rewarded with a massive contract extension in 2023. His seven-year, $24.5 million deal also came out of the blue and staggered all of us with the length.

Unlike Pierre Engvall, Mayfield has been a career Islander. He was drafted by the team in the second round in 2011 and made his way up through their system to become a regular contributor on the team back in 2016-2017 and a fixture in the lineup two seasons later. Over the past few years, injuries have been unfortunately regular occurrences and he's never been a big point scorer and counted on for his defense.

Those are all good things and he's a solid player...but a seven-year extension for a guy on the wrong side of 30 and who dealt with injuries was a risky gamble and one that new GM Mathieu Darche may not want to navigate.

The possibility of a buyout was mentioned in March by Arthur Staple, and if the Isles do it, it'll take 10 years before it's paid off. Fortunately, the cost of that wouldn't be punishing and being afforded an extra $2.3 million against the cap would go a long way to deepening the Islanders.

Tyler Bertuzzi, Chicago Blackhawks

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Contract remaining: Three years, $5.5 million cap hit

Last summer wasn't one that Chicago GM Kyle Davidson wants to look back on fondly. The moves he made to add maturity to the roster to better insulate and surround budding phenom Connor Bedard mostly backfired and dragged the Blackhawks back into the deep end of the NHL Draft lottery pool.

One of the moves that didn't stick the landing was the four-year, $22 million contract for Tyler Bertuzzi. He was just coming off a 21-goal, 43-point season with the Toronto Maple Leafs and was previously a 30-goal scorer with the Detroit Red Wings. The thought was he'd provide his irascible style of play to go along with Bedard's brilliance and magic would be made.

It didn't really happen. Bertuzzi finished the season with 23 goals and 46 points which did follow suit with how he played for the Leafs, but when he teamed up with Bedard it became apparent that they were better away from each other. His minus-39 plus-minus rating (we know, we know) was the lowest on Chicago, and he was the one player who prevented Bedard from finishing last in that category (albeit he played 350 more minutes).

The possibility of buying out Bertuzzi was mentioned in April by Mark Lazerus at The Athletic, but Chicago isn't remotely close to being a cap strapped team unless they throw a Brinks truck at Mitch Marner. Bertuzzi is Chicago's highest paid player (wild truth, right?) and paying him out over the next six years wouldn't hurt the 'Hawks in any way.

That said, if new coach Jeff Blashill—who coached Bertuzzi in Detroit—can't figure out the right role and line combination for him, then maybe no one can. Bertuzzi's best season happened while playing for Blashill and it would make sense to have him get a shot to improve his overall performance.

Chris Kreider, New York Rangers

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Contract remaining: Two years, $6.5 million cap hit

It might seem rash if the New York Rangers found a way to free cap space by buying out Chris Kreider. He's been a heart-and-soul player for them, but with how things have gone over the past year in Manhattan, maybe it wouldn't be entirely shocking.

So much of the drama with the Rangers last season surrounded former captain Jacob Trouba and the team's efforts to trade him last summer and then GM Chris Drury saying early in the season that anyone could be traded including Trouba and Kreider. Trouba was eventually sent to Anaheim, but that initial threat of trades sent the Rangers' season careening off the rails and now you have to believe anything could happen.

Kreider is 34 years old and he had 22 goals this season. That's still solid production, but it isn't $6.5 million worth of offense. Considering he had 127 goals in the previous three seasons combined, the drop off looks a bit rougher.

If Kreider got bought out of his final two years, it would save the Rangers $3.5 million and $2.5 million against the cap the next two years and that's not chump change. New York is slated to have $8.4 million in cap space this summer and an extra $3.5 million would be a big addition.

Of course, finding a trade partner would be most ideal and with the added cap room around the league the possibility of that happening isn't impossible. The Rangers will want more room to spend to improve after missing the postseason so you'd have to think any and all options would be on the table.