July 1st is coming up, the day where NHL GM’s spend their team’s money and cap space like it’s going out of style. The week before, buyouts are open to erase mistakes.
So far across the league only one buyout has been made. in this cycle, Chicago moved to cut veteran defender TJ Brodie loose. Many teams won’t utilize buyouts, the Pittsburgh Penguins being in the vast majority. It’s not because they don’t have contracts that they would rather vanish, it’s because of the terms of how the NHL works buyouts.
In this realm, hockey drifts far from the NFL.