The Buffalo Sabres are already preparing for this summer. It appears, according to Kevin Weekes' report, that the organization is close to acquiring Ben Bishop in a trade with the Dallas Stars. Bishop announced his retirement from professional hockey last season due to injury, so this move is entirely for salary cap purposes.
Bishop's contract has a cap hit of nearly $4.9M while the team that signs him only has to pay him $3.5M in actual salary. This is a much more attractive contract for Buffalo to acquire than, say, Shea Weber, who takes $7,857,143 on the payroll for the next four seasons. The only advantage with Weber is that the organization will have to pay him $3M next season and $1M in the last three years of his contract in real salary.
