2. Buffalo Sabres
The first team in the top two has to be the Buffalo Sabres. Buffalo has around $16 million in projected cap space, and when factoring in LTIR, that number goes up to about $26 million with players like Ben Bishop, Ilya Lyubskin and Henri Jokiharju on LTIR.
Buffalo could be a great team to try and take on a bad contract. They only have 43 contracts in their organization so they have space to take on another player or two to free up a playoff team.
1. Arizona Coyotes
Finally, we have the Arizona Coyotes. No one should be surprised they are the top team here. Arizona has a projected cap hit of over $18 million, and with LTIR, that goes up to almost $30 million in space.
Teams are only able to retain contracts on three players at a time, and Arizona already has one covered in Oliver Ekman-Larsson, who currently plays for the Vancouver Canucks. So, they would only be able to retain the salary of two players this season. Arizona could be a great team to help take on a bad contract, and I think that is going to be the case for the next handful of years.