Pretty much this. It's really the only logic step at this point. Sucks but there is no way that Avs get out of his contract for free to much red tape for that to happen.Nuke is going to end in a termination and settlement. The Avs will threaten pure termination and deal with the union grievance (regardless of if it would hold up). Nuke will say that he has to be bought out and will fight anything. All parties (including NHLPA and NHL) will come together to make it work. Nuke will get something, but it won't be the $25m he'd get out of a buyout. Where it exactly lands between 0-25m is anybody's guess (my personal thought is ~12m).
I'd bet we have an answer on this prior to the draft, but at least July 1. If we get past July 1, we will see how the Avs are planning by the cap space they leave open.
Hopefully that can spread it out over like 10 years ago or isn't too bad a cap hit.