Mess
Global Moderator
An amnesty buyout might not have the same rules as a regular buyout that counts against the cap.
This amnesty buyout is not a new concept..
This was created with the last CBA already where teams could buy out players and not have it count against the cap.
Leafs bought out Owen Nolan coming out of the 2005 lockout for example, and he never counted against Leafs cap.
It also specifically had rules against resigning your own players as GMs could use this as cap end-arounds by trying to reduce players salaries on their team and cheating the system. ie .Leafs could have bought out Sundin at $7 mil and resigned him at $2 mil and Mats would be earning $9 mil while only $2 mil would have counted against the cap.