There’s no chance anyone takes Kuznetsov even at 50% without significant assets to sweeten that deal.

Wouldn’t it be cheaper for us salary cap wise to just buy him out

I think we’re better off just letting him sit in the AHL for a year. We’ll see what happens at 2:00 today re: waivers

Cleared waivers

Just let him sit imo. Maybe they do buy him out before the draft. I’m indifferent at this point.

Ya id rather keep him or trade him than buy him out

I'd try and find someone to give a minor asset at 50% retained but if you can't get even that, I'd just buy him out before I'd pay to unload his deal. Full retention would cost $3.9M of cap next year then disappear; buyout cost $3.8M next season with one penalty year at $2M in 2025-26.

No thanks from the Avs.

To buy him out next year, you are looking at 8M * 2/3 = 5.36m split over 2 years for a cap hit. I assume he didn’t make any of his bonuses this year, so your pay out is probably 11.36m (13.36m if he got his bonus) if you bury him.

A buyout you are paying 7.8 million plus the remaining salary of the player you have to acquire. In this case, it would probably be Grzelcyk.