|
if the team completely strikes out in the UFA market and in attempts at making a trade, I could see Gomez being brought back and given one last shot at being a useful top-9 player... with the very clear idea that if he falters in camp or early in the season, he's got a one-way ticket to Hamilton for the rest of the year (barring unlikely trade).
If, however, any other alternatives to improve the team this summer are available and require some of his cap space, then it's off to Hamilton if no takers are found.
buy-out (unless an amnesty situation) should not be an option, period.
In an ideal world, the cap goes up significantly (and the cap floor with it), and one of the lower budget teams decides to take a shot at him finding his game with a change of scenery, and is willing to risk the 10M$ owed to him to find out (benefiting in the process of the extra ~5M$ cap hit that he comes with to help them navigate the cap floor).
i really don't think it's such a far fetched idea that some team is willing to take him off our hands for "free", or perhaps with us throwing in a token late draft pick or prospect that doesn't fit into our plans.
quite a few teams with internal budgets have a need at Centre, and if the cap floor goes up again this year, taking a risk on Gomez in a situation where his cap hit is actually a bonus, could make a lot of sense
|