1. If the player files for salary arbitration, it is the team that gets to choose a 1 or 2 year award from the arbitrator. There is an exception to this that if the player is 1 year from UFA, the award will automatically be 1 year.
If the team files for salary arbitration, the player gets to choose 1 or 2 year.
2. The walkaway for this year is $4.22 million. Any player elected salary arbitration award below that cost must be accepted by the team. This is why you see less teams qualify marginal RFAs. The $4.22 million number is tied to the salary cap and will increase/decrease as the salary cap does.
Since all the Flames players still going to arbitration will likely be below the walkaway number, the Flames will have to accept whatever the arbitrator awards them. This is why you will see them do whatever they can to lower the arbitration award.
3. Any player that is sent to the minors will have their cap hit reduced by $375k + minimum NHL salary. This year NHL minimum salary is $650k, which means anyone with a cap hit of $1.025 mil or less will not count against the salary cap.
4. The buyout cap hit is not simply 1/2 the cost. There is still a cap hit for buying out a player. Capfriendly has a good FAQ about buyouts:
https://www.capfriendly.com/buyout-faq.