As you guys probably know, the NHL has agreed that each team will receive two buyouts over the next two seasons. In short, I don't find this fair and piecing together (okay, just copy and pasting so some other parts of the discussion are missing) some comments I made on another blog, I'll explain why.

I mean, they have to be there if they’re going to cut the cap, but there should be some reward for teams who have actually been smart with their money and haven’t thrown absurd contracts at anything that moves.

The teams buying players out get a second chance and a competitive advantage. The teams who were responsible get nothing. It’s like letting a guilty con out of prison early and giving him some money to top it off.

Sure, it saves some billionaires a few bucks. Big deal.

Where any team who didn’t buy out a player gets to pick players in between say, the first or the second round.

Or, the teams buying out players could forfeit picks. In terms of fairness, the picks would be weighted so a team buying out a mega (Di Pietro or Luongo) contract would forfeit higher picks than a team buying out say, one year of a Tim Connolly contract.

I don’t think forfeiting picks is fair, because they were within the rules of the last CBA, so the sandwich rounds would be better because you’re rewarding rather than punishing if you get what I’m saying.

cir·cum·vent
Verb
1. Find a way around (an obstacle).
2. Overcome (a difficulty), typically in a clever and surreptitious way.
Synonyms
deceive – cheat

and…

am·nes·ty
Noun
1. An official pardon for people who have been convicted of political offenses.
Verb
1. Grant an official pardon to.
Synonyms
noun. pardon
verb. pardon

Teams buying out players like Scott Gomez won’t benefit other teams to the same degree it benefits Montreal. I agree that it was within the rules so I guess you’re right in that maybe "responsible" isn’t the best word to use, but my point still stands. The entire point of the cap is to level the playing field and giving some teams a competitive advantage and denying others is hardly levelling the playing field.

I also agree that it’s somewhat unfair for teams to have to trim their rosters to fit the new cap, but all this "dismantling of rosters" is blown out of proportion in my opinion.
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Sorry for the discontinuity, but I think I got my point across.

Thoughts?