Sunday, May 26, 2013

DiPietro On A List Of Potential Buyouts

From Le Journal De Montreal: A good list of potential buyouts around the NHL include some interesting players. The ten mentioned are as follows: Tomas Kaberle (Montreal), Mike Komisarek (Toronto), Ilya Bryzgalov (Philadelphia),  Keith Ballard (Vancouver),  Brad Richards (New York Rangers), Daniel Brière (Philadelphia), Anton Volchenkov (New Jersey), Rick DiPietro (New York Islanders), Dany Heatley (Minnesota), Vincent Lecavalier (Tampa Bay).

My take: I don't see Lecavalier nor Volchenkov being bought out. It's been reported that Briere will be bought out. The others will remain to be seen. This just makes a point that this offseason will be different in that these free agents are now being added to a group that before the end of this season, was not looking good at all. It's not a major improvement, but you should see a trend of teams making moves to get under the new cap ceiling. That's where the Isles come into play. As of this writing, Capgeek.com has the Islanders payroll at just under 36 million for net year. Even on a budget, the Islanders can absorb a decent contract and still be near the budget they want to be at and resign their free agents as well.  As for DiPietro, he should be on this list, but for some reason (call it a gut feeling) I don't think the Isles will buy him out this year. Management may want to see what they have in Poulin and a healthy Nilsson next year and make a decision on Mikko Koskinen, who is playing very well over in Europe. The Islanders have the option of buyouts either in this summer or next, so there is no pressure for them (except from the peer pressure of the fans) to make a move like that just yet.

 

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