Confirmed Buy-Out Wisniewski bought out

Uncle Scrooge

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Nov 14, 2011
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My guess as to why: They need to get a defenseman to expose for the expansion draft and need the contact space to add him and have a few other bodies they plan to add in trade/FA. Add in a less than ideal rehab for Wiz and it makes sense. He played 47 seconds so it's not like he was a cog of the team.

To go further, we have to expose someone for the 40/70 requirement. Hanifin, Slavin, Pesce are exempt. Hainsey doesn't have a contract for 17-18, so nope. That's 4 down already. That leaves Wiz, Murphy, Faulk. Wiz doesn't have a contract for 17-18. Murphy needs 35 games next season to meet the 70 game over two seasons requirement. If we kept Wiz, we'd be swapping him out every other game just to get Murphy his requirement because we sure as hell aren't exposing Faulk. At that point, what's the point in keeping Wiz if he's not back to where he started? So, we decided to cut him and go after someone else who can take his place and meet the requirement himself.

I think I have that right. Please correct me if I'm wrong.

Good point.

Probably a lot of 'weird' stuff will keep on happening around the league because of the expansion draft.

After all, for us it's still far away, but for the GM's they already have to make every single move with the expansion draft in mind.

And even if by the expansion draft they realize this buyout was unnecessary, it's still better to do it than regret later.
 

NotOpie

"Puck don't lie"
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Uhh what? Unless RF has another move lined up already, this just doesn't make much sense. The canes are a lot shorter at RHD than LHD, and Peters stated he likes to keep the pairings balanced left to right. Saving cap space is irrelevant and it just extends his money another year. Francis has been great so far, but I don't get this one

There's also a pretty simple business thing going on here. Despite Wisniewski's $5.5 million cap hit, his actual salary was $3 million. The buyout pays him $1 million this year and $1 million next year, saving the Hurricanes $1 million. We are no where near the cap so saving the dough probably came into play. After all, this organization cares more about real dollars spent than they do the cap.

I think when non-cap teams start buying out players, it's a pretty significant red flag on that player.

In this case Wiz was 100% healthy. Who knows if he lost a step, but that wasn't why he would have been bought out. As others have said the Canes need a defenseman that can either play 40 games this season or had played 70 games last season for expansion exposure purposes. This is more about roster engineering than anything else. More moves will be coming from Ron Francis.
 

SaskCanesFan

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Feb 27, 2015
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There's also a pretty simple business thing going on here. Despite Wisniewski's $5.5 million cap hit, his actual salary was $3 million. The buyout pays him $1 million this year and $1 million next year, saving the Hurricanes $1 million. We are no where near the cap so saving the dough probably came into play. After all, this organization cares more about real dollars spent than they do the cap.

They also have to pay someone to take his spot on the roster. So unless that player makes less than 1 million, they don't save anything.
 

Not Sure

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Feb 8, 2016
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They also have to pay someone to take his spot on the roster. So unless that player makes less than 1 million, they don't save anything.

But they need to pay someone on the roster who can play enough to meet the expansion requirements. The punishment for not meeting the expansion guidelines will be severe. He won't make the contract or games requirement if he gets hurt again. Is buying him out better then losing a good player or a 1/2 round draft pick?
 

Roboturner913

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Jul 3, 2012
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Could also be they feel playing him on the second pair would stunt Pesce's development, and playing him on the third would be a waste of resources when you could play Murphy instead for much less salary and save the cap space for a forward.

I feel Francis has something in the works for a relatively big UFA.
 

The Faulker

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Dec 1, 2013
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I don't think this indicates Francis will do something big tomorrow. Not saying he won't, but this move wasn't necessary to make a big signing happen. I think this is simply about preparing for the expansion draft and somewhat related to his injury.

Before dropping Wiz, this was our projected defensive setup for the season (pairings just a guess):

Slavin - Faulk
Hanifin - Pesce
Hainsey - Wiz
Murphy

As stated before, Hanifin, Slavin, Pesce are all exempt from the draft. Hainsey and Wiz are free agents after this season. That leaves Faulk as the only player who fits under the 40/70 rule and we'd be forced to expose him in the expansion draft (clearly not happening). And I highly doubt we are wanting to play Murphy a significant amount of games to make him eligible under that rule.

So we basically had to get drop one of Hainsey or Wiz. It's pretty clear which one is the better choice. Wiz is coming off a somewhat bad injury and missed an entire season. Hainsey has been here a couple seasons and seems to be a good locker room presence for the young guys. So, we buyout Wiz to create a roster spot and will likely fill it with a vet defenseman on a two-year deal. Then we leave him exposed for the expansion draft.
 

DonskoiDonscored

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Oct 12, 2013
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For those wondering about whether or not this is a record - ostensibly he's #4 all-time:



See but all those other guys played more minutes in other leagues that year.

What Wisniewski did (or didn't do) might be a record for the shortest year of pro hockey of anyone that played at least 1 second.
 

kilowatt

the vibes are not immaculate
Jan 1, 2009
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Veteran? Check. Injury history? Check. Right-handed? Check. Welcome to the Kings, James!
 

Flat Ronnie

Registered User
Feb 11, 2014
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What do you think he's looking for?

Lightning need a RHD that can run a PP and skate well.

Would he be interested in a 1-2 year deal with a low hit to be on a cup contender?
 

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