Quote:
Originally Posted by CorsiHockeyLeague
Still doesn't make sense to me why they didn't just terminate it for violation of the morality clause a la Richards. They'd probably have to settle it but settling by definition means it's less than what you have to pay otherwise.
I doubt his buyout hurts them much cap-wise though. Maybe a few hundred K this year and next?
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Keep in mind with the Richards contract there was $22M salary remaining spread out over five years. If the Kings had just ordinarily bought Richards out they would have taken a $1.217M cap hit in 2015-16, $1.717M in 2016-17, $2.717M in 2017-18, $4.217M in 2018-19 and 2019-20, and $1.467M every year from 2020-21 through 2024-25, and paid him actual monies of $1.467M every year from 2015-16 through 2024-25. ($14.667M total in actual cash to Richards.)
Instead, having terminated the contract for breach and ultimately settling with Richards, they took a cap recapture penalty (as though Richards retired) of $1.32M every year from 2015-16 to 2019-20, and are paying him a $10.5M settlement
that still counts against the cap, spread out until the end of the 2031-32 season. The Kings ultimately save themselves $4.167M in actual cash, and spread the cap hit out over an additional six years.
Buying Virtanen out, the Canucks will pay him $1M spread over the next two seasons, incurring a cap hit of $50,000 this year and $500,000 next, in lieu of paying him $3M actual salary this season and taking a $2.55M cap hit.
Virtanen would almost certainly win if he/NHLPA file a grievance, considering he hasn't been criminally charged and nothing has been proven in court, so even if they ultimately terminated his contract and reached a settlement for something less than the $3M they still owe him, the cap hit and actual dollar amount paid to him is relatively small anyway.
