It turns out that Kailer Yamamoto won’t be suiting up for the Red Wings. One day after Steve Yzerman acquired him from Edmonton for future considerations, the 24-year-old is being bought out:
Kailer Yamamoto will be bought out by the Red Wings. Detroit strongly considered keeping him but couldn’t make moves to make it work. Given tight cap, Yamamoto is a good you player hitting the market.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) June 30, 2023
This came as a bit of a surprise to me because the Wings have plenty of cap space. So the ‘tight cap’ comment didn’t make much sense. A buyout here suggests that Steve Yzerman is poised to do some spending in free agency. Here’s what Kailer Yamamoto’s buyout breaks down, according to CapFriendly:
Yamamoto is less than 26 years of age and therefore his buyout costs 1/3 of the remaining value. With 1 year left it will span 2 years.
Buyout Cap Hit:
23-24: $433k ($2.67M savings)
24-25: $533khttps://t.co/2zZZwWXdn5 https://t.co/jUTGBcAYON— CapFriendly (@CapFriendly) June 30, 2023
Yzerman also acquired Klim Kostin in this trade. It appears he won’t be going anywhere. According to Mark Spector, KHL contract talks broke down for Kostin and he’s set to sign a two-year deal.
NHL free agency will open at noon Saturday, July 1. Steve Yzerman has a truck load of cap space and assets to make a trade. This will be interesting to watch! Stay tuned.
