The Tampa Bay Lightning on Tuesday informed left wing Vinny Prospal that the team is buying out the remaining three years of his contract.
Tampa Bay general manager Brian Lawton sent a letter of intent to Prospal and his agent informing them of the team's decision. Prospal has 24 hours to request not to be placed on waivers, otherwise he automatically goes through waivers and any team that picks him up would be responsible for the remaining $10.5 million on his contract. If he elects not to be placed on waivers, Prospal would receive the buyout and become an unrestricted free agent.
Prospal, who was reacquired from the Philadelphia Flyers before last season, signed a four-year contract worth $14 million last June. He has $10.5 million remaining on his deal.
Under the terms of the buyout, Prospal would receive two-thirds the remaining value of the contract spread out over twice the length of the remaining contract, which equates to $7 million over six years. By buying out the contract, the Lightning will take a salary cap hit of $1.167 for the next six seasons.
"After fully evaluating our roster and our position in the salary cap world, we arrived at the decision to buy out Vaclav Prospal from his contract,'' Lawton said. "We appreciate Vinny's service to the Lightning, but in the best interest of the team, we believe a difficult decision needed to be made in this case, and we are going to move ahead without him. We wish Vinny all the best.''
After enjoying a career season in 2007-08 by scoring 33 goals between Tampa Bay and Philadelphia to go with 71 points, Prospal had 19 goals and 45 points last season.
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