You don't need to buyout Clowe's contract you know. It can be placed on permanent LTIR for a full cap relief and the contract is insured so NJ is only paying a small fraction of the actual salary. Buying it out makes no sense. Same goes for Savards contract. It will be on LTIR come October. Both players' 4M+ cap hits will be off the teams salary cap total.

Overpayments: Josefson, Merrill, Elias, Boucher, Okposo.
Underpayment: Palmieri
As F50 mentioned, both Clowe and Savard come off the cap hit due to LTIR placement.
Santini beats Merrill out for that spot on the roster, just my opinion at this point.
I like the idea of keeping the core together, though.

I bet Santini + McCosshen take a year in the minors... Just like Brian Doumoulin.