So I just wanted some information from some of the more CBA knowledgeable people here: What is stopping a team from signing a player they have already bought out?

The question comes from this post at Puck Daddy: http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/blog/puck_daddy/post/Alexei-Yashin-s-agent-talks-KHL-vs-NHL-return-;_ylt=AtdCPuLWjiIo9JvQSVJmAE17vLYF?urn=nhl,256523

In the post it mentions that Alexei Yashin gets a lot of interest from the New York Islanders. I kinda chuckled a little bit because the Islanders are still paying for is buyout in cap hit ($4,755,067 this year and $2,204,000 for the next four according to CapGeek). Then it got me thinking: is there anything that would stop the Islanders from resigning him? From the CBA perspective that is. I know the Islanders have a special situation where they are not battling with the salary cap ceiling, but battling the salary cap floor. So if they were to sign Yashin again maybe for the next 5 years at 3M a pop or something along those lines he would cost against the cap either $ 7.7 M or $ 5.2 M. The team would only be shelling out 3M a year out of pocket (because I assume they already paid him the buyout up front)  and his combined cap hit would be very high helping them over the floor. It is awkward, but it is conceivable correct?

If it was the case that there would be nothing illegal about signing someone you have currently buying out, what is to stop another team from doing it too, but in another way. Lets just take a situation where there is a team who might be over the salary cap by about 3M ... hypothetically. And lets say there is a player who is pretty good, but has a huge cap hit like 6.5 M or something like that ... something that it hard to swallow, but you still want the guy on your team even though you are in cap trouble. And for sake of argument lets call him .... Manny ... Pierre. So the team buys-out this Manny Pierre at a cost of a cap hit of the following:

"MANNY PIERRE" FROM CAPGEEK.COM (HYPOTHETICALLY)
2010-2011: $1,233,333
2011-2012: $1,233,333
2012-2013: $1,233,333
2013-2014: $5,233,333
2014-2015: $6,233,333
2015-2016: $1,733,333
2016-2017: $1,733,333
2017-2018: $1,733,333
2018-2019: $1,733,333
2019-2020: $1,733,333

Then the team turns around a resigns him for 3Y @ 1M. Manny gets all his money, plus more, and he is welcome to sign with whomever he wants there after. The team saves about  4.2M for the next three years they are then under the cap by 1.2M and it gives them substantial wiggle room to play with. Manny gets all his money, the team keeps the player and can keep competitive with a very manageable cap outside of one year. ... In theory it would be possible ... right?

I really have to ask just because I don't think people are grasping the concept and what it really will do over time.

First it is important to remember that this isn't NHL 10; it is the real world. I know I used to see someone come through waivers that a team was trying to send down to the minors and I'd pick them up for safe keeping. I would do that myself with some player in NHL 10 (Knuble being one of them when Washington waived him)

Think what it does when people look at the organization. Players will not want to do come to a team to be disrespected. It would be equivalent to one of you taking a job at a firm expecting a corner office and a good title then 2 weeks into the job the company comes back to you and takes away your office and demotes you to a non-management position but you are bound to a contract so you can't leave. You would be angry at best. When word gets out that this is the standard of practice, people will be less likely to want to work for that company no matter how much money they are being offered. As for our hockey team, you would get this if you tried to waive someone you just signed or try and trade them.

Yes there are times when waiving or trading someone you signed in the off season is a viable move, but not in that same off season. Shelley, Zherdev, O'Donnell. They are going to be on the team unless they get injured or retire. The sad part is together they cost over 4M in and they could all be at the level of a Healthy scratch on the depth chart on any given night. What is sad is we could be looking at Powe, Laliberte, and Syvret (assuming they resign him) as those types of players and looking at being just a smidgen over the cap at this point.

From on outside standpoint it is hard to see what the NHL is compared to the AHL. Once a player gets to the NHL he doesn't expect to go back down to the AHL. It doesn't become about money it, it is a sense of pride almost. Look after the lockout when John LeClair was with Pittsburg for the year. He was waived, refused assignment, then waived again, and ultimately released from his contract. And I believe (but not 100% sure) they had to buy him out and his contract then counted against the cap.

Plus you also have to consider that your minor leagues are your developmental teams. You are using those teams to house your players of the future and to develop them into what you are looking for. It isn't a bank where you can store veterans for when you need to have an extra player come playoff time. It that was the case I'd be waring my Peter Forsberg Phantoms jersey right now. I mean you or I would probably be like: "sure I'll take a $1M to sit on my pwn some noobs." ... and come to think of it, I wouldn't want that I would want to play when I should be playing.

I mean the moves the Flyers are making this year make no damned sense. It almost seems like they threw too many offers up in the air and too many people caught them and turned them in at once. What are they going to do? I don't know. You sign Shelley if you think Carcillo is too expensive (or too much of a liability on your team). You sign O'Donnell for league minimum if you want him to be a veteran backup for the playoffs/injuries and keep him a healthy scratch, at least you don't when you have already traded for a $4M D5. Because you over paid these two and still don't have a proven stable goalie you are forced to move salary, but before you do you sign the replacement for who you will move.

It all doesn't make sense and really it seems quite amateurish. I strongly get the feeling they are screwing themselves more times over by over spending at this point and acquiring as many assets as possible and dealing with where they are going to go later than just following a plan that looks like someone was thinking. I mean companies go bankrupt because the buy too many assets instead of focusing on real needs.

More moves are going to come, however when you sign people or make trades you are supposed to be making your team better. To this point they have not done so and I can't see how they can unless there was some overtly dramatic shakeup ... and at this point I don't know if you wouldn't want to start with the GM.

Just a heads up. The Flyers have released their college plan $100 for 4 games for 200 level tickets. Info is here: http://flyers.nhl.com/club/page.htm?id=5664. The seats I got are in 204A  which end up being $53 for individual games and $43 for season tickets. So for $25 it is a nice discount.

I think individual tickets are on sale today too so it would be worth checking out today if you can.