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Vegas Golden Knights: Return of compliance buyouts not good news for Stastny

By Andrew Steele-Davis

CALGARY, AB - MARCH 8: Paul Stastny #26 of the Vegas Golden Knights in action against the Calgary Flames during an NHL game at Scotiabank Saddledome on March 8, 2020 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images)
CALGARY, AB - MARCH 8: Paul Stastny #26 of the Vegas Golden Knights in action against the Calgary Flames during an NHL game at Scotiabank Saddledome on March 8, 2020 in Calgary, Alberta, Canada. (Photo by Derek Leung/Getty Images) /
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Paul Stastny of the Vegas Golden Knights in action against the Calgary Flames during an NHL game at Scotiabank Saddledome on March 8, 2020.
Paul Stastny of the Vegas Golden Knights in action against the Calgary Flames during an NHL game at Scotiabank Saddledome on March 8, 2020. /

Could the Compliance Buyout be coming back into fashion? Reports suggest so and it could have a significant impact on the Vegas Golden Knights.

With the sporting world on lockdown due to the coronavirus crisis, including the Vegas Golden Knights, all discussions now are revolving around the impact this health pandemic will have on the NHL.

It is almost feasible at this point to suggest that the salary cap for the 2020-21 season will be frozen, and we discussed the ramifications for the Golden Knights here, while the future of the remainder of the 2019-20 regular season and the Stanley Cup Playoffs is still very much in doubt.

And, with the NHL set to take an almighty body blow financially no matter what happens now, conversations are starting to take place around what the NHL will do in order to help teams if the cap for 2020-21 remains at $81.5 million.

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One idea that has emerged has been the return of the Compliance Buyout, also known as Amnesty Buyouts, a concept that hasn’t been seen or heard of since the 2012-13 lockout.

Brought in to help teams in the wake of the lockout, each franchise was granted two Compliance Buyouts each in order to wipe out a player’s cap hit completely, hence making them different from a regular buyout.

These buyouts were allowed to be used over the 2013 and 2014 off-seasons, with the salary cap rising each year since.

Players still got paid some of their salary, but it didn’t count against the cap for the team in question.

For a full breakdown of the Compliance Buyout, click here.

Now, according to former NHL General Manager and now Sportsnet Analyst Brian Burke, the NHL could look to bring back the Compliance Buyout in order to help teams erase contracts they simply can’t afford post-COVID-19.

Nothing has been confirmed as of yet, and it won’t until the final fate of the 2019-20 NHL season is determined, but there will be a lot of teams who could benefit from having two Compliance Buyouts at their disposal.

The Golden Knights are very much one of those teams, especially if the salary cap remains at $81.5 million for the 2020-21 NHL season.

Having battled to remain cap compliant this year, the Knights were hoping that the cap would rise to as much as $88 million as reported only a few weeks ago.

However, things look set to be extremely tight in 2020-21 for the Golden Knights yet again, and we looked at the players they could look to use a Compliance Buyout on…

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