Two words: Vincent Lecavalier

Is that even legal?

I don't think you can resign him back though. the 2nd buyout window doesn't open up to players not on the team prior to the signing bonus period.

No

Figured

The loophole was patched.

There's no motivation for Hedman to agree to lose money on his current contract, and then sign for way less than his value. He's not the same calibre of player Brooks Orpik was, not even at Orpik's peak.

Hedman can't resign in Tampa until 7/1/25 if the Hawks buyout his last year. So that's a giant hole for Tampa next season. Tampa isn't doing this.

Actually think that could be done as long as the trade is before the first buy-out period TB didn't buy him out. So, there wouldn't be the Vinny LeCavelier scenario laid out earlier. It's definitely a move that would probably send non lightning fans into cardiac arrest.
Edit: With that said Amalie arena has a better chance of seeing a foot of snow tomorrow than this.

Yes. Washington did it with Brooks Orpik a few years ago (hence the title). They traded him to Colorado along with Grubauer. The Avs bought him out, then he re-signed with Washington. The league looked into it after and found it fell within the rules. And as far as I know, they have yet to patch it up.

Carolina did a similar thing with Philly with DeAneglo, but that was over a longer period.

I'm looking into the details to provide proof myself, but I thought of the same thing for John Tavares. His signing bonus is something like 99% of his contract. YES, a player can get traded now and bought out, but it's the return part that I'm hearing is a no go.

The Anthony Deangelo situation was over the 1 year period. Traded July 8th 2022. Signed with CAR July 24th 2023.

The NHL literally changed the rule so it couldn't happen again.

It's been unofficially named the "Brooks Orpik rule" ever since. 🙄

Compliance buyouts have to wait a year. Regular buyouts do not.

(Haven’t been CBO since 2013)

What rule? As far as I know it is still legal

Can you provide a link? I like to read this stuff. I'm curious where it's at. The link to the CBA and modification is below. Not sure if you know where within the modification it was changed.

https://www.nhlpa.com/the-pa/cba

It's kinda a moot point though. You're asking the Hawks to eat $5M+ in cap and ~$5.7M dollars...it'll cost A LOT more than what you're offering. Signing Bonuses still get paid out.

Isaac Howard is pretty solid prospect…I figured that would be equal to 1st round pick

This is not allowed. I've already dug through this subject for substantial evidence on multiple occasions. I'm not doing it again. So, I'm not going to cite references. But I'm almost positive that through those discussions and research it was determined it would be cap circumvention and not allowed by the NHL.

I would consider that a pretty good payment, if it is legal. He was a 1st, had a crap rookie season, but this past season after transferring to Michigan State he was awesome, and equally as good at the world juniors. I don't know if I would consider him to be worth a 1st anymore, but when packaged with a 2nd round pick, I think it could work.

I think there is enough to his game where he doesn’t need to be top-6 scorer to make impact. Solid middle six winger who could be a scrappy spark-plug 20g guy at his peak.

And he already has built in chemistry with Nazar.