Last summer Peter Chiarelli added Lauri Korpikoski to the Oilers roster in a questionable deal that saw Boyd Gordon sent to the Arizona Coyotes. Gordon had one-year and $3M remaining on his deal, Korpikoski had two years left at an average value of $2.5M. Presumably the Oilers were getting an upgrade on Gordon, who while valueable, was a very expensive fourth line option. Unfortunately there were signs at the time the deal was made that Korpikoski was not much of an upgrade and the on-ice results quickly bore that out.
The #Oilers have placed forward Lauri Korpikoski on unconditional waivers for the purpose of contract buyout. pic.twitter.com/Y2nxzszRn0
— Edmonton Oilers (@EdmontonOilers) June 30, 2016
Today the Oilers moved on from that mistake by buying out the remaining year of Korpikoski's contract. Paying someone to not play for you is, I have to assume, not something that NHL General Managers want to do, but in this case it was absolutely the right call. From General Fanager's handy buyout calculator, the Oilers will carry a $0.5M cap hit, savinf the team $2.0M in cap space; next year that cap hit jumps to $1.0M in 2017/18.