Sunday: Friedman reports that Grabner has cleared waivers and now is an unrestricted free agent.
Saturday: The desperate cost-cutting in the desert has begun. The Arizona Coyotes are in arguably the worst salary cap position of any NHL team heading into this off-season and had to make moves to be compliant ahead of next season. The first casualty is veteran winger Michael Grabner. Sportsnet’s Elliotte Friedman was the first to report that Grabner has been placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of a buyout.
With just one year remaining on his current contract, the Coyotes will face penalties for just two years for buying out Grabner. Rather than deal with an AAV of $3.35MM this season, Grabner will count for just $833K against the cap in 2020-21 for a savings of over $2.5MM. This brings CapFriendly’s cap space projection to about $3.6MM (which still won’t go very far with seven roster spots to fill and a number of restricted free agents to sign). In 2021-22, the buyout will cost Arizona just over $1.25MM.
Unlike most buyouts, there is a small chance that Grabner does not clear waivers. Even at 32, Grabner still plays with tremendous speed and is a dangerous penalty killer. However, he has not played a full NHL season in two years and his offensive production, even if healthy, is likely limited to 20-30 points at most. Teams will likely take their chances at getting Grabner at a lower cost on the free agent market than claiming his $3.35MM contract. Grabner will surely draw attention if he does make it to market.
He would be a good pick up for the B’s third line with Colye even though I would rather they use baby B players
I think they just need to go all out for one last season with season being the last for DK and Rask and probably Chara (if he resigns)
Trying to clean house.Tell me not trying to win next year. We made a mistake sining him to begin with. On it goes
Grabner would be a good fit on any team that needs help on the PK and could be a nice fit on a cheap contract with a team that views itself as a contender. Nashville & Vegas are two of several teams that could have interest
Sounds like good logic.But I doubt he just sinns a contract.Maybe like you say peds or Lv.make perfwct sense. Nice post
I’d rather have him in the AVS line up instead of Jost.
Michael Grabner, what might have been… Guys like him don’t come along every day, making you say the somewhat ridiculous “I can’t wait to see him on the PK!” While not literally, it almost seemed like every game he’d be lurking in the weeds on the PK, intercept an ill-advised pass, then be off to the races for a freebie. It’s a shame that injuries have all but stopped him pegging the Wow-O-Meter on many nights. Maybe some team will take a chance after his buyout.
Nashville could use his PK skill in their bottom 6
He is what kappenen floor in the nhl is all speed no finish