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Sheldon Souray goes unclaimed on re-entry waivers; buyout in his future?

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It was decision day for Sheldon Souray to see if he would be claimed on re-entry waivers at half price by another NHL team. As it turns out, the AHL-exiled big shooting defenseman will not be going anywhere as he went unclaimed on waivers. Souray’s been playing this year with the AHL Hershey Bears, farm team of the Washington Capitals, as the Oilers didn’t want him anywhere near their team or farm system. With Souray coming with a price tag of $5.4 million against the cap this season and next, even at half that amount the oft-injured blue liner isn’t exactly a bargain.

For Souray, this means he’ll spend the rest of the year in Hershey as a very well compensated exile who will instead try to help an AHL team win the Calder Cup. With Souray’s deal continuing on into next season it’s doubtful that the Oilers would continue to pay him such a large amount of money to keep playing in the AHL for another team’s farm team.

This means that Souray is likely destined to be bought out of his deal before next year. That means Edmonton would be paying him off to get out of town and have two-thirds of his cap hit stretched out over the following two seasons while Souray becomes a free agent. It’s an ugly way to part ways with a team but considering how ugly things have been between the two sides, a buyout seems like the nice way to go about it. Sure there’s an outside chance that Souray can be traded before the deadline, but considering he wasn’t grabbed at half-price now, it would seem highly illogical that another team would look to bring him on at full price.