Everyone loves to talk about buying out Mr. Leino. But after reading up on the CBA's buyout and cap hit ramifications, I'm not sure it's worthwhile. For the sake of the argument, let's not worry about Mr. Pegula's money, and worry only about the cap hit.

After this season, Leino will have four years left on his contract with a total cap hit of $18M. According to CapGeek, buying Leino out will cost the Sabres $13M in cap hit over 8 years. Now that $13M is then a sunk cost - the Sabres have to pay that no matter what, so we shouldn't consider it at all. It's only the $5M in savings that matter. So this becomes a really interesting question. Would you rather have Leino play for the Sabres, or save $5M over 4-8 years? After looking at it that way, unless he regresses into AHL-caliber with no upside, I'm actually inclined to keep him. At the moment there's still a chance he can turn into a versatile 50-point player we thought we were signing.

Arguing to keep Leino on the Sabres. 'Tis a strange day indeed.