Holik was gone by the start of the cap. He was signed summer 2002 and bought out after the lockout in summer 2005.
Woof. There were rumors at the time that signing Holik was also a punishment to the YankeesNets (the owners of the Devils at the time) for removing Yankee games from Cablevision.
Bobby Holik previously made 3.5m and then signs a 45M/5 year deal with the Rangers. So how does Bobby Holik show up at camp? Overweight and immediately has hip flexor issues for the first half of that season.
Holik was bought out to get under the 39M cap. They used the 'Holik' money to sign Straka and Malik.
Rangers weren't angels either, during the lockout, only the Rangers didn't pay signing bonuses to their players, stiffing Holik, Kasparaitis, and (poor) Jed Ortmeyer.