Anaheim Ducks general manager Bob Murray continues to make moves with his defensemen as draft weekend finally comes to a close. James Wisniewski was traded and now it appears that another Ducks blue-liner will not be back next season.
Anaheim Ducks
After two seasons with the Ducks, 29 year old Mark Fistric was placed onto waivers early Sunday morning. If a team claims him off of waivers then he will join that team under his existing contract and the Ducks would no longer be financially tied to Fistric. Due to the assumption that no team will claim Fistric off of waivers, Bob Murray appears to be ready to execute his next move.
It is now being reported that the Ducks will buy out Mark Fistric’s contract. So what does that mean?
Mark Fistric just finished the first year of a 3 year $3.8 million dollar deal. With that current deal, he carries a salary cap hit of $1,266,666 over the next two seasons. The rules with buy outs are somewhat confusing so here is a quick version of what will happen.
The Ducks will buy out Mark Fistric and he will count against their salary cap for twice the amount of remaining years on his contract, he has 2 years remaining so that means he will count against the Ducks salary cap for the next 4 seasons. A buy out pays Fistric two thirds of his total salary remaining on his current deal. He is owed $2,700,000 over the next two seasons and two thirds of that is $1,800,000. So, Fistric will have a cap hit of $450,000 for the next 4 seasons if a buyout does occur.
So, essentially the Ducks waive Fistric and a buy out ensues. His cap hit goes from over $1.5 million to just $450,000 over the next two seasons, clearing $900,000 in cap space. This is a necessary step to help Bob Murray re-sign all of those big name players (Kesler, Lindholm, Despres, Vatanen, Rakell, Sekac, Freddie and Gibson) who become free agents after next season season.
Assuming the buyout happens, the Ducks would then have 5 defensemen (Fowler, Lindholm, Despres, Vatanen, Stoner) under contract for next season and Bob Murray could be using this extra cash to re-sign current unrestricted free agent, veteran cup winner Francois Beauchemin. He could also be lining up a free agent blue-liner or possibly eyeing another defensemen that he wishes to acquire via trade. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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