NHL Salary Cap Topics > Buyouts
Cost of Buyout
For players that are 26 or older, a buyout is 2/3 of the remaining salary owed on the contract.
For players that are under 26, a buyout is 1/3 of the remaining salary owed on the contract.
All buyouts are spread out over twice the remaining years of the contract.
Signing Bonuses
Players receive signing bonuses regardless of the buyout. That means that when calculating the buyout amount and cap hit, signing bonuses are excluded.
Cap Hit
The actual annual cap hit of the buyout is calculated year by year as follows:
• Add together the Original Cap Hit and the Contract Signing Bonus for that year
• Subtract the Contract Total Salary for that year (base salary + signing bonus).
• Finally, add the Annual Buyout Cost as calculated above (2/3 of remaining contract divided by twice the remaining years of the contract).
Buyout Period
Buyouts can start on the later of June 15 or 48 hours after the Playoffs end, and the buyout period ends June 30 at 5pm Eastern.
Teams may receive an additional Buyout window. If a team has a player go to arbitration and it is either settled or awarded, the team receives a new 48 hour buyout window beginning 3 days after the arbitration settlement or award. The only contracts that are eligible to be bought out in this window are for player with Cap Hits greater than $4M AND they were on the team's roster at the last trade deadline.
Buyout Calculator
Check out PuckPedia's Buyout Calculator, or go to any Player's Page, and click Buy Out under any year of their contract
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