Briere and the Likely Buyout

There is lots of talk about Danny Briere being bought out.  Unfortunately, much of it is wasted breath because people don't really understand the finer points of the rules.  The bottom line;

-Every NHL team is allowed two "compliance" buyouts to save cap room.  These buyouts may be made this offseason or next.

-If bought out, the player will receive 2/3rds of the remaining contract value paid out over twice the life of the contract.

-Regarding Briere specifically, he is owed $3m this year and $2m next.  Thus if he is bought out, the Flyers would be paying him ~$3.3m total, or ~$825k/year for the next 4 years (which would not count against the cap).

-If the Flyers don't buy out Briere, he will count as $6.5m against the cap.

-If the Flyers buy out Briere, he will become a free agent, and the Flyers will be ineligible to sign him.

-Briere has a no-movement clause, and thus could veto any trade.

Briere has been very clear; he expects to be bought out, but would prefer to stay.  Hockey-wise, Briere has been amazing in the playoffs, but poor in the regular season the last two seasons.  Undersized and 35 years old, that's probably not going to improve.  That is not worth ~10% of the team's cap space, and the Flyers could easily eat $3 million on their budget.

It also seems a longshot that Briere would accept a trade.  For one, purely monetarily, as long as Briere could find a contract for more than $1.675m/year for 2 years he comes out ahead when you combine the new contract value with the buyout payments he is due.  Second, Briere is a single dad with a few sons and probably would want to stay local.  He won't want to get shipped across the country, for instance.

The only scenario I see other than a buyout is trade to the Islanders.  The Islanders are just up the road from south Jersey, and given their puny payroll and the cap floor they must reach (or pay a penalty), they'd prefer to have Briere at a $6.5m cap hit rather than a $1.675m cap hit.  Are they actually interested in Briere?  I have no idea.

Long story short, expect a buyout, though a trade is a slim possibility.


**I have also heard some possible shenanigans involving trading players, and then having another team perform the buyout.  By doing so, a team would effectively get more than 2 buyouts, or be eligible to sign the bought out player.  I'm assuming no such tomfoolery will be had.