Three NHL veterans currently on “buyout watch.”

The National Hockey League currently has a buyout window open that every team around the league can take advantage of, allowing teams to get rid of bad contracts and the players attached to those deals for a fraction of what it would have normally cost them to retain that player.Many teams across the league have already taken advantage of the buyout window, most notably the Minnesota Wild who pulled off a huge surprise when they bought out both veteran defenseman Ryan Suter and former Minnesota Wild star forward Zach Parise, but there are many more still that were expected to do so and have not yet pulled the trigger on a buyout. 

The window for those teams to do so will officially close on Tuesday, July 27th, at 5 pm which means that in order for a player to be bought out he must be placed on unconditional waivers for the purpose of that buyout no later than today, Monday July 26th. Keeping that in mind there is an expectation that we could see some big activity on the waiver wire today, specifically as it pertains to players being bought out.

National Hockey League insider Frank Seravalli believes 3 veteran players in particular are currently at risk of being bought out of their current deals, with those being veteran forward James Neal of the Edmonton Oilers, veteran goaltender Martin Jones of the San Jose Sharks, and veteran goaltender Braden Holtby of the Vancouver Canucks.

Neal was acquired by the Oilers as part of the trade that sent veteran forward Milan Lucic to the Calgary Flames and currently has 2 years remaining on a deal that carries a cap hit of $5.75 million.

Jones has a similar cap hit to Neal at $5.75 million but is on the books for longer with 3 years remaining on his current contract. He was signed to his 6 year deal in July of 2017 by the same Sharks team that will likely now look to buy him out of his contract.

Holtby on the other hand was signed to a much shorter deal, a 2 year contract, just last October by the Vancouver Canucks but it would seem that they are already seeking to clear his cap hit of $4.3 million from their books.