News Article Report: Canadiens will buy out Scott Gomez’s contract

[Irishjim]

Joe Yerdon

One potential issue for

new Canadiens GM Marc Bergevin will be what to do with Scott Gomez.

The 32-year-old forward has two years remaining on his contract and a massive cap hit ($7.3 million) without the production to match it. Louis Jean of Sportsnet hears from a source, Dave Morrisette of Le Match in Quebec, that Montreal’s plan for Gomez

will be to buy him out of his deal this summer.

Gomez’s buy out price will be stiff. Under the current CBA, buying out a veteran player means taking two-thirds of their cap hit and paying it out over twice the length of the remaining years on the deal. What might be worse than paying Gomez to play poorly for you for the next two seasons? Having a gnarly cap hit for the next four years while he plays for someone else.

According to CapGeek.com,

buying out Gomez means having a cap hit of just over $3.5 million on the books this season followed by a hit of over $4 million next season with two more seasons at $1.67 million just going to waste.

Those are some ugly numbers but with a new CBA on the way, you wonder if Montreal will hold off on buying out Gomez right away because the rules will be different. There’s the chance there will be amnesty buyouts (meaning no cap hit punishment) as well as the possibility that burying contracts in the AHL won’t be allowed anymore. I hope no one told Bergevin the job would be easy

[radoran]

Scott Gomez buyout from CapGeek.com

• 2012-13: $3,523,810
  
• 2013-14: $4,523,810
  
• 2014-15: $1,666,667
  
• 2015-16: $1,666,667
  

[flyerrod]

Kind of a crap shoot concerning the CBA and trying to guess if it is cheaper to buy him out now or wait......Gomez is one of those perfect candidates for a buyout clause....

[ruxpin]

It's the end of July. How is a team OR a player supposed to know what the hell to do?

[Irishjim]

hope he kept the puck on that one goal he scored

[habsguy26]

Hope to god Gomez is burried.

[jammer2]

@Irishjim How dare you??? Scotty bagged *2* goals!!!

[Irishjim]

@Irishjim How dare you??? Scotty bagged *2* goals!!!

@Irishjim How dare you??? Scotty bagged *2* goals!!!

pre-game skates don't count