On the Pittsburgh Penguins …
Bob McKenzie on NBCSN: my NHL Trade Rumors transcription …
“Well I think now more than ever, if it makes sense for the Pittsburgh Penguins to trade Marc-Andre Fleury, I think they’re wide open to that possibility.
Now having said that, people want to confuse that with the impact of the expansion draft, people will say “wait a second, if Marc-Andre Fleury is not trade by the deadline, then he’s got a no-move clause and must protect him in the expansion draft. You protect him, that means that Matt Murray is exposed, and they couldn’t possibly do that, or they shouldn’t possibly do that.”
But here’s the thing, the Penguins would never allow that to happen. If Marc-Andre Fleury wouldn’t waive his no-move clause in the event he’s not traded by the expansion draft, then they would simply buy him out. Now, they wouldn’t want to do that because it brings a cap punishment hit down the road, but that certainly is a solution, or they could go to George McPhee in Las Vegas and say, “Hey, here’s a draft pick, lay off Fleury if you don’t mind.”
But that, what they really want to do, is assess, can they get cap space to do something else that makes sense, or we’re also giving up our insurance policy with Murray and Fleury.
The most important thing is to win the Stanley Cup, and if makes sense to do it, they’ll do it, and if it doesn’t, they won’t. They’ll worry about the expansion draft stuff later.”
James O’Brien of Pro Hockey Talk used Cap Friendly’s buyout calculator for Fleury. It would cost the Penguins $1,916,667 in salary and cap hit for the next four years.
It would save the Penguins $3,833,333 in cap space next year and in 2018-19, but would be an extra $1,916,667 cap hit in 2019-20 and 2020-21.