In a move that is surprising to few, the Sabres have waived forward Ville Leino for the purpose of buying him out. Before the Sabres can use a compliance buyout on Leino he must first clear waivers, allowing the other 29 teams an opportunity to grab him for his current salary.
Leino had a caphit of $4.5 million per year and was due $11 million more over the next three years. The Sabres will have to give him two thirds of that, but under a compliance buyout it would not affect the salary cap. In 137 games in Buffalo Leino scored ten goals and 36 assists. This season he helped one lucky person win $1,000 due to him scoring zero goals.
The Sabres signed Leino three years ago after failing to land the big fish in free agency, Brad Richards. However Leino never really found a fit in Buffalo, starting with the fact that he wasn’t able to productively play center like Darcy Regier had hoped. The Leino signing will go down as one of the worst the Sabres have made.
If the Sabres are planning on using a compliance buy-out, they will be even further away from the cap-floor. Buffalo is currently $18 million dollars under the projected floor for next season.