If they Flyers wanted to exercise a buyout of say, Andrew MacDonald or Matt Read, they can do so today, as that period officially opens.
General manager Ron Hextall was pleased with how MacDonald performed last season - he played very well with rookie Ivan Provorov - and despite his high salary of $5 million per year, Mac is not going to get hit with a buyout.
Matt Read has been in decline for a while and the Flyers could be thinking about losing a nice chunk of that $3.625 million salary next year, but his agent, Matt Oates, said on Wednesday the Flyers had not contacted him about a buyout.
Undoubtedly, both Read and MacDonald will be exposed this weekend when the Flyers submit their protected list to the NHL. It's due by 5 p.m. on Saturday.
That list will be fully disclosed by the NHL on Sunday at 10 a.m. That's when the Vegas Golden Knights have a 72-hour window to sign any restricted or unrestricted free agents.
This Friday, the NHL imposes a trade freeze except if the deal involves the Golden Knights.
