DALLAS — The Paul Martin era in San Jose is coming to an end.
The Sharks placed the veteran defenseman on unconditional waivers Friday for the purpose of buying out the final year of the four-year, $19.4 million contract that he signed with the club as an unrestricted free agent in July 2015.
In doing so, the Sharks will free up roughly $2.83 million in cap space to pursue free agents and impact forward via trades this offseason. With the buy out, the Sharks now have roughly $18.8 million in cap space available to chase after the likes of John Tavares or Ilya Kovalchuk in free agency and re-sign players, such as pending-unrestricted free agent Joe Thornton and pending-restricted free agent Tomas Hertl.