Of waivers and buyouts

By Brian LeBlanc
NCSportsTalk.com - Puck Drops
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For a couple of hours on Tuesday, there was a good bit of confusion in the Twitterverse about when a player needs to clear waivers to be eligible for a buyout.  Since the blog doesn't have a 140-character limit, it's easier to explain here than it is over the course of five or six tweets, so here goes.

The governing rule of buyouts is paragraph 13 of the Standard Player's Contract, which is (obviously) a standardized contract that every player in the NHL signs and is specified in the Collective Bargaining Agreement.  Here's what it says about buyouts:

(a) The Club shall offer the Player on Unconditional Waivers, either before or promptly after the notice of intention to exercise the Ordinary Course Buy-Out option (herein called "notice of termination") is given.
(b) Termination pursuant to this Paragraph shall be effective upon receipt by the Player of the notice of termination and the Player clearing Unconditional Waivers pursuant to Paragraph 13(a) above.
(c) The notice of termination shall be effective if given in the form attached as Exhibit 20, with a copy faxed to the NHLPA and Central Registry as follows:
  (i) beginning the later of June 15 or forty-eight (48) hours after the conclusion of the Stanley Cup Finals and ending at 5:00 p.m. New York time on June 30; and
  (ii) For Clubs who have Club or Player elected Salary Arbitration filings pursuant to Article 12, within the forty-eight (48) hour period beginning on the third day following the later of:
    (i) the Club's receipt of its last salary arbitration award; or
    (ii) settlement of its last case (provided such award was received or such settlement occurred after 7:00 p.m. New York time; awards or settlements that occurred or were received after 7:00 p.m. New York time will be deemed to have occurred or received the following business day for purposes of this provision).
 

So in English, that means that A, B, and C all must happen, but -- and here's the key -- they aren't required to happen in that order.  The most important things in the above are that (1) the player must be placed on waivers and (2) the buyout form must be into the NHLPA and the NHL Central Registry by 5pm Eastern on June 30.  As long as those two things happen by 5pm Eastern on June 30, the buyout is valid no matter when the player actually clears waivers.

A quick note on waivers.  Players placed on waivers must be available for no less than 24 hours, and the waiver wire processes daily at noon.  So a player placed on waivers at 11:58 am on Tuesday will hit the wire at noon Tuesday and clear at noon Wednesday, but a player placed on waivers at 12:02 pm Tuesday will hit the wire at noon Wednesday and will clear at noon Thursday.

The understanding of plenty of media members and agents, self included, was that the player must clear waivers by 5pm on June 30 to be eligible for a buyout.  The "promptly after" clause of paragraph A above indicates that the buyout may be performed in the reverse order, and while "promptly after" is not defined, in practice it means that a player can be placed on waivers at the same time as the buyout notification.  That effectively makes the buyout deadline noon on June 30, because the player must hit the waiver wire on June 30 to make the buyout valid.

A second buyout window opens if the team involved has two or more players involved in salary arbitration, whether it's player- or club-elected arbitration.  This is the window in which the Canes bought out Frantisek Kaberle last offseason.  The window opens three days after the final case is settled, and closes 48 hours later.  The Canes have four players eligible for arbitration this season: Justin Peters, Justin Pogge, Bryan Rodney and Casey Borer.  If two of these players elect arbitration, or if the Canes elect arbitration for two of them (or one apiece), the second buyout window will come into play and the Canes will have the ability to buy out a player after the cases are settled or after the players involved sign new deals that avoid arbitration.

Hope all this makes sense.  It's not easy to parse, and as we learned today, even veteran hockey minds can be confused by the mind-numbing legalese of the CBA.