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Here at Five For Howling, we like to keep track of Arizona Coyotes players, both past and present. We previously talked about the Calgary Flames buying out the final year of Michael Stone’s contract. While they didn’t want the cap hit for Stone, they clearly wanted to keep him around, as today it was announced the Flames have signed Stone to a one-year, $700,000 contract.
The #Flames have signed defenceman Michael Stone to a one-year deal. https://t.co/zKfnbCyu3V
— Calgary Flames (@NHLFlames) September 11, 2019
This is an extremely rare move, so rare that it prompted some people to wonder if it was against the rules. Thankfully CapFriendly stepped in and explained the difference between “Ordinary Course Buy-Outs” and “Compliance Buy-Outs.”
With regards to CGY buying out Stone on Aug 1st, and then resigning him on Sept 11th, there is nothing in the CBA that prohibits a club from doing this.
— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) September 11, 2019
Only a player bought out under the "Compliance Buy-Out" provision was prohibited from resigning with the same club for 1 year. pic.twitter.com/BGCUjqcjnP
With this signing Stone will get $1.866 million from the Flames this season and $1.167 next season. Stone will make only $466,667 less then he would have if Calgary hadn’t bought out his final year, and the Flames got some extra cap space this season.
This is definitely an unusual move by the Flames, but it’s good to see Stone find a spot on an NHL roster.