Player Buyouts

[JustAsking]

Question: Teams that buyout players, are they able to resign those players?

Example: Paul Martin at 5mil cap hit. The Pens are in cap trouble next off season. Can they buy out Paul Martin, then offer him a new contract at a less cap hit. He will still get his monies from the old contract, so his new contract should be on the 'cheap'... is that legal? (low in cap space, high in owner money)

 

[dash]

I don't believe that's permitted under the current CBA.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

I think it would be legal because a bought out player is UFA.

However, not sure the cap savings would be much. Under the buyout, they're getting a cap hit for a portion of the salary ($1.66M in Martin's case). If, in this example, they could re-sign him for say $3M, they're on the hook for a total cap hit of $4.66M.

EDIT: I think it depends on the type of buyout. If it's a normal buy-out, I think they can re-sign the guy. If it's a compliance buyout they have to wait a year.

 

[awaz]

I don't believe that's permitted under the current CBA.

this. i think you have to wait a year before you can offer that player another contract

 

[KennyBanyeah]

this. i think you have to wait a year before you can offer that player another contract

It seems like teams would try to use it as cap circumvention if you could buy out a player and then turn around sign him right away.

 

[JustAsking]

Those guys in PA and the league think of everything...

Thanks guys.

On a Pens Note: Boo.. well, either Martin, Letang, or Malkin won't finish next season on the Pens. I'm not sure what team would trade for Martin, knowing the Pens situation, may as well force their hand, and have the Pens buy out Martin, then try to sign him on the cheap... It'll be a bummer for the Pens to lose, right now, the defenseman with the most goals (or tied or 2nd, he won't stay there, but still) in the league for nothing... it'll be interesting to see what Shero does.

 

[JustAsking]

It seems like teams would try to use it as cap circumvention if you could buy out a player and then turn around sign him right away.

Thanks for sticking around my questions.... I do appreciate responses... my last question may have been dumb, but it seriously had nothing to do with the players involved, but the act itself...

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

It seems like teams would try to use it as cap circumvention if you could buy out a player and then turn around sign him right away.

Other than the compliance buy outs though, I think they only get 3 for the term of the CBA, so I would see that as being a one-off type of thing rather than a widespread problem.

 

[KennyBanyeah]

Other than the compliance buy outs though, I think they only get 3 for the term of the CBA, so I would see that as being a one-off type of thing rather than a widespread problem.

True. I'm not very familiar with the ins and outs of the CBA but I think there could be some serious shenanigans if this is allowed.

You could sign a player to $10 M/year contract, buy him out and re-sign him for the league minimum. That player now gets about $11 M for a cap hit of less than $6M.

Meh. I'll leave this one to the lawyers.

 

[sabresfaninthesouth]

True. I'm not very familiar with the ins and outs of the CBA but I think there could be some serious shenanigans if this is allowed.

You could sign a player to $10 M/year contract, buy him out and re-sign him for the league minimum. That player now gets about $11 M for a cap hit of less than $6M.

Meh. I'll leave this one to the lawyers.

My understanding, which could be wrong of course, is that you can immediately re-sign a bought-out player if it was an "ordinary course" buyout. This would be the example I gave above where, all things considered, the cap savings is not likely to be that great, which is probably why they allow it to happen immediately. If you're not saving that much cap space and you've burned one of your buy-outs over the life of the CBA, the motivation isn't really there.

For the compliance buy-outs, you're exactly right because compliance buy-outs don't count against the cap, which I assume is why the league put that clause in that they can't re-sign with that team for a year.