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Potential roster move to lessen the Jack Johnson buyout hit this year |
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As we head into the offseason the Penguins could use all the cap space they can get. Every dollar is going to matter. People have talked extensively about the mid-tier contracts (Dumoulin, McGinn, Zucker, Pettersson, not re-signing Kapanen) plaguing the Penguins salary cap. There needs to be movement on this front at some point.
Another salary cap problem they cannot rid themselves of is Jack Johnson’s 1.9M buyout this year. Could there be a way to mitigate the cap hit? There might be a way to free up about 616k. There’s a defenseman in Nashville who is in a very unique situation. His name is Philippe Myers and if you trade for him and buy him out you would actually get money to spend this year. Weird, I know. From Frank Seravalli of the Daily Faceoff
10. Philippe Myers
Right Defense, Nashville Predators
Age: 25
Stats: 27 GP, 1 G, 3 A, 4 Pts
Contract: 1 more season, $2.55 million AAV
Scoop: Why Myers, a player who has already passed through waivers? Myers represents a unique and quirky opportunity for a cap-strapped team that can trade for him and actually create salary cap space with a buyout. Because Myers is 25 and his deal is backloaded, his buyout would result in a $616,666 credit on next season’s cap, followed by a $633,334 charge the following season. This has happened before (see: Jared Cowen in 2016) and the Toronto Maple Leafs pounced on the deal.
So this would hypothetically drive down the 1.9M cap hit from the Johnson buyout to the ~1.3M range for the 2022-23 season. If the Penguins are scrapping for money in 2022-23 this is an opportunity to gain some cap space. The catch would be the 633k cap hit the following year, which combined with the 2023-24 Jack Johnson buyout would run about ~1.5M. The bet you would be making is that the salary cap would go up in 2023-24 and the money saved right now would be valuable enough to eat the extra cap hit in 2023-24. I think the cap will go up. It is just a matter of how bad you need the 633k right now. There is a greater than zero chance they’ll need those table scraps given their current situation.
I believe a team can only have two buyouts on the books so by doing this the Penguins would be at their max. This is a non-issue because I don’t see a single contract on the roster even close to being in buyout territory.
I’d have to be privy to the Penguins actual plans to know if something like this would make sense. If this is a scenario where they need ~600k in the short term to extend Malkin and/or Letang I’m doing this yesterday. I can also understand not wanting the 633k cap hit on top of the Johnson buyout for the following year. This is an option and all options should be explored.
Thanks for reading!
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