The San Jose Sharks are in a major cap crunch and a compliance buyout this summer could be a huge help to give them some breathing room. I’ve done this with a few of the other teams that I cover for HockeyBuzz and this article will look at what the Sharks would do with a compliance buyout.
Something interesting about the Sharks is that even though they’re so tight up against the cap, they actually only had eight players with an AAV higher than $2 million this season. So when assessing who could be the victim of a buyout, there aren’t too many options. Of the eight, Logan Couture, Tomas Hertl, Evander Kane, Erik Karlsson and Timo Meier are safe, as they’re all valuable assets and for the most part, are worth their contracts. Brent Burns, while declining with term remaining, is still too valuable to be bought out. Maybe if this was a few years down the road but right now, it doesn’t make sense.
This leaves two players: Martin Jones and Marc-Edouard Vlasic. With Jones, after two down years while making close to $6 million per season, he’s becoming a cap burden. He’s still young enough to turn things around but considering the situation the Sharks are in with the cap, it comes down to whether they think than Jones can recover. Four more years of Jones under a .900 save percentage would be terrible.
Then there’s Vlasic. He’s been one of the NHL’s top defensive defensemen for a decade and is still a serviceable player for the Sharks. He plays way more than any other left-handed defenseman on the team and is hugely important to San Jose’s penalty kill. But at 33 years old and with six more years remaining on his contract at $7 million per season, this isn’t going to end well. He’s already not worth his AAV and in a couple years, there's a good chance his contract will be a huge burden on the Sharks’ payroll. A compliance buyout may be the only chance to escape his contract without facing any consequences.
If granted a compliance buyout, the Sharks have to use it. I think it's probably more likely to be used on Jones, though Vlasic is my pick. Creating cap space will be a challenge for the Sharks and a compliance buyout could be key for San Jose.
Here’s today’s poll question (results and discussion will be posted tomorrow):
If granted a compliance buyout, who do you hope the Sharks use it on?
San Jose Sharks Blogger • 
Join the Discussion:
»