Skinner might get closer to 8mil in free agency, if not would want 7year term at 7mil.
Still dont have a #1 goalie

The problem with buying Lucic out is that, yeah, it saves money in the 1st year but it totally screws your pooch in years 2, 3, and 4 of the buyout. You'd be paying out $5,625,000, $4,125,000, and then $5,625,000 again - so if I'm reading that right, sure, it means you can spend more money in the 1st year he's gone but it's gonna take up most if not all of the cap increase for the next year and good luck negotiating any new contracts or bringing in any even slightly expensive UFA players with that kind of hobble. It could be done, but man, it's honestly not much of an improvement.

The whole situation with his contract sucks like a vacuum.

The real benefit isn't the cap space honestly, I think everyone will have to come to grips with that. There isn't all that much saved in years 1 and 3 and in 2 and 4 its basically nothing. The real gain here is you get him off the roster, you get the media talking about other things, you get some of that Chiarelli presence off the team, etc etc.

Buying out Lucic isn't about getting extra cap space to get UFA's and what not. Its about flipping the page and starting fresh. Its not what is really wanted but its slightly better than nothing.

I am convinced that there is an alternative to a Lucic buyout and that is a trade. I get that he's radioactive right now but a lot of that is having to live up to a $6M contract/cap hit.

On July 1st he gets a $3M bonus. That leaves $16M over the remaining 4 years of the contract. Still undesirable. Retain $2M and it almost becomes palatable. One of the (many) other mock GM plans had Lucic going to Columbus for Wennberg and, with $ retained, that isn't crazy. There may be other options available as well.

It's not just that - it's that even if he waives to go to a different team he'd have to be protected in the expansion draft. Ain't nobody going to want to give up on protecting a highly skilled player to protect Lucic.

NMCs don't necessarily flow with the traded player. The acquiring team has to agree to honour the clause. Some will (Dion Phaneuf, or M-A.Fleury for example) and some teams don't (P.K. Subban, who ironically was traded just prior to his NMC kicking in on his extension).