It’s been over a month (37 days to be specific, but who’s really counting at this point?) since the NHL closed up shop amid the COVID-19 pandemic — and the amount of concrete info made available to teams, players and fans about the fate of the 2019-20 season and beyond has been sparse, to say the least.
Granted, the NHL is mired in the same muck that has left other leagues like the NBA and MLB at a standstill — forced to brainstorm contingency plans while awaiting word from health and government officials on feasible scenarios that would allow play to resume in the near future.
But even beyond the 2019-20 Stanley Cup Playoffs and the threat of not being able to award hockey’s top prize this summer, a stymied revenue stream is set to cause headaches for the NHL in the coming years — especially when it comes determining how much fiscal flexibility teams and players will be granted via new cap-space limits and escrow payments.
We’ve gone through multiple scenarios in regards to the new cap limit for 2020-21 — which was at one point projected to jump from its current $81.5 million limit to between $84-88.2 million — and how it could seriously hamper both the Bruins and plenty of other Cup contenders around the league.
It’s still unclear what the final cap ceiling will be for next season — with scenarios involving the sum remaining flat, dipping below $81.5 million or earning a slight bump all apparently still on the table.
But at this point, it seems like a cap boost ranging between $2.5-6.7 million seems like a lost cause.
That is going to create a cap crunch for multiple teams, who might have to spend this offseason selling off assets, clearing space and letting free agents walk to remain under the cap limit.
But, regardless of what the NHL and NHLPA determine to be the 2020-21 cap ceiling, there stands a chance that all 31 teams could receive a bailout by way of compliance buyouts.
Compliance buyouts are similar to the standard buyouts that teams can opt for in order to ease the pressure brought on by a burdensome contract — in which a team must pay two-thirds the remaining value of the deal over twice the remaining tenure of the contract.
However, compliance buyouts are different in that they do not count against the salary cap — allowing for a team to essentially clear a contract off the books without having it count against whatever new upper limit is agreed to next season.
The NHL rolled out a similar strategy following the 2012-13 lockout, after both the league and NHLPA agreed to keep the salary cap at the same limit as the previous season. In order to assist teams in a bind by the lack of a cap bump, the league gave each team the option for two compliance buyouts spread over the next two seasons.
Ultimately, 28 total players were released by way of compliance buyouts in 2013 and 2014 — headlined by Brad Richards, Vincent Lecavalier, Scott Gomez and Ilya Bryzgalov. Players released via compliance buyouts were then prohibited from rejoining the team that bought him out for one year.
If the Bruins are indeed granted a compliance buyout in order to free up some additional cash for Torey Krug, Jaroslav Halak, Zdeno Chara and a slew of RFAs, who are some potential candidates?
Here's a look at Boston's current cap situation for this year and beyond — courtesy of the awesome folks at CapFriendly: 
The one name that does jump out right away is veteran defenseman John Moore — who is signed for another three seasons after this campaign with an annual cap hit of $2.75 million.
Moore is a respected player in Boston's room and has been lauded for his efforts at getting back into shape following major offseason shoulder surgery this past summer, but the fleet-footed skater simply hasn't worked out since signing a contract with the Bruins back in July 2018.
Projected to be a regular on Boston's blue line, Moore's minutes have been hard to come by throughout his tenure so far — with the emergence of another puck-moving defenseman in Matt Grzelcyk chipping away some of Moore's stock as a regular starter in Bruce Cassidy's system. Add in the emergence of Connor Clifton last season and Jeremy Lauzon in 2019-20, and Moore has often found himself on the outside looking in steady minutes — appearing in 85 of a possible 152 games.
Granted, Moore has been dealt a bad hand this season when it comes to his extended rehab, but the veteran has struggled to remain in the lineup since getting the green light to play back in early December. Boston has handed Moore pretty favorable ice this season, with 60.00% of his faceoffs coming in the offensive zone. Still, even with those regular starts down the opposing end of the ice, Moore still ranks last among Bruins skaters (min. 200 minutes of 5v5 ice time) in goals against per 60 minutes (2.39).
Don Sweeney and the Bruins have already done a great job at freeing up some cap room this season — ridding themselves of a majority of David Backes' contract ($4.5 million) and acquiring Ondrej Kase along the way. Had that deal not been struck, Backes would have likely been the leading candidate for a compliance buyout — with a majority of the other contracts in Boston's salary pool either committed to key cogs (Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand, Tuukka Rask, etc.) or younger players coveted for future campaigns (David Pastrnak, Charlie McAvoy, Brandon Carlo). Other than Moore, Boston's options for a buyout seem limited, to say the least.
As we saw last year during the Stanley Cup Final, Moore still has value as a capable blueliner that can slot into in the lineup when necessary — but with cap space at a premium, the Bruins can't afford to pay a seventh defenseman $2.75 million for the next three years.
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