The Minnesota Wild have confirmed their intentions to buy out the remaining season of Matt Cooke’s contract.
“In order to give our team more salary cap flexibility for the upcoming season we needed to make this difficult decision,” said GM Chuck Fletcher in a release. “We thank Matt for his time with the Wild and wish him the best going forward.”
Once Cooke clears waivers, the 36-year-old winger will become an unrestricted free agent, though he cannot re-sign with the Wild. Per CapFriendly, the buyout will result in a cap hit of $500,000 for next season and $1 million in 2016-17.
The Wild need the “salary cap flexibility.” Devan Dubnyk is a pending unrestricted free agent, while forwards Mikael Granlund and Erik Haula are pending RFAs.
According to Michael Russo of the StarTribune, there “has been little headway toward a new deal” for Dubnyk, who will officially become unrestricted on July 1.