With the remainder of the 2019-20 NHL regular season up in the air due to the COVID-19 outbreak, there have been rumors surrounding the possible return of compliance buyouts to help teams adjust financially to the crisis. For those unaware of what a compliance buyout is, it is essentially a buyout that doesn’t count against a team’s current cap space. A compliance buyout would help the Chicago Blackhawks tremendously by shedding Brent Seabrook’s dreadful contract from their payroll.
The idea of compliance buyouts has floated around for the last month or so, but according to NHL Network Insider Elliotte Friedman, owners around the league have put that plan to rest.
With compliance buyouts out of the picture, the Blackhawks do not have many options left on the table. A regular buyout of Seabrook’s contract would be too costly, and he can’t be traded or released without approval due to his no-movement clause.
The Blackhawks were going to be in a salary-cap crunch even with the cap originally expected to rise a couple of million dollars. But now that the cap likely won’t rise, the Blackhawks need to nickel and dime their way to resigning Dominik Kubalik, Dylan Strome, and potentially Corey Crawford.
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